


Two Souls

by MiliusPrime



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Byleth has the soul of the progenitor god, Bylia has the Crest of Flames, Combat, Courtly intrigue, Multi, Rivalmance, Slightly Canon-Divergent, it's complicated - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-08-11 20:00:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20159257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiliusPrime/pseuds/MiliusPrime
Summary: What if Jeralt's wife had given birth to twins? Between them consists 1 whole heart, 1 progenitor god, 1 Crest of Flames, and two souls. Being whole of mind has strengthened their familial bonds - which presents an interesting complication to the situation when they're unable to leave Garreg Mach Monastery against their will. Will they struggle against fate, or embrace it? And finally, which House will they choose?That is, if they choose the same one.





	1. I Told You So

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys welcome to my twin fic AU with custom f!byleth x claude rivalmance and meta-y weird division of a whole Byleth into two. Hope you enjoy this, I've already written 12 pages and I'm nowhere done so I'll be here for a while. Thanks for reading!

“Dad, are you sure we should be getting this close to Garregg Mach?”

“Bylia, you know just as much as I do how little I want to be here, but this is the quickest way to get to House Tiernen and I couldn’t justify a detour to the rest of the company.”

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a few monks, Bylie. I was wondering why you left it up to me to take care of things the last time we ran into some representatives of the Church of Her Radiant Goddess.”

“Shut up Byleth.”

“Oh yeah? Make m-”

“Children. Please.”

“Sorry Dad.”

Jeralt sighed and rubbed his forehead. As dearly as he loved his late wife, he’d always wondered at the fairness of fate handing them a pair of twins and then leaving him to raise them both single-handledly. Despite both of them inheriting their looks from their mother, neither of them inherited her gentle personality. In fact, both were quite unique and rather the handful to manage.

Bylia, the older of the two, was rather clever and quick-witted. She was sneaky, and didn’t like doing things the hard way if she could think of something easier. Despite joining him and Byleth in being sellswords for their merc company, she was typically one to avoid conflict with anybody unless they challenged her directly, preferring to punish them as she deemed fit in other ways according to what she thought they deserved. Not much faith in karma, that one. Not much faith at all, actually. Though that might have been his influence warning his children not to trust the Church of Seiros.

Byleth, on the other hand, was headstrong and preferred to brute force things that got in his way, which usually worked out quite well for him due to his strength. Though more naturally generous and soft-hearted, when his temper flared he was prone to acting rashly. He preferred things simple and had a rather black and white moral compass. Like his sister, he didn’t put much stock in faith, but instead of rejecting it vehemently like Bylia, just didn’t seem to care.

They both had an inherent gift for combat. Even if he had tried not to raise them in his admittedly dangerous profession, he was certain they would have ended up in it anyways, so it was a moot point. Bylia favored her twin daggers, sneaking behind their enemies and shanking them from behind before they could make a sound. Byleth cut down anything in his path with the sword that was more of an extension of his own body than a weapon.

Jeralt was shook out his reverie at a commotion at the edge of the mercenary group’s encampment. His children, who had taken to glaring at each other silently as they absentmindedly cleaned and sharpened their weapons, had also taken note of the noise and were gazing in that direction.

He wordlessly rose and led the way to investigate.

____

Bylia stared apprehensively at the three oddly clad teens that stood in front of them from behind her father. The tall blond one was speaking now, asking her father for help.

“Please forgive our intrusion. We wouldn’t bother you were the situation not dire.”

“What do a bunch of kids like you want at this hour?” Her father asked, his arms crossed against his chest cautiously.

“We’re being pursued by a group of bandits. I can only hope that you will be so kind as to lend your support.” The young man explained.

“Bandits? Here?” Her father sounded surprised.

“It’s true,” The stern looking young woman who was with them piped up, “They attacked us while we are at rest in our camp.”

“We’ve been separated from our companions and we’re outnumbered.” This time the flamboyant looking young man spoke, running a hand through his hair restlessly. “They’re after our lives… not to mention our gold.”

“I’m impressed you’re staying so calm considering the situation.” Her father remarked. “I… Wait. That uniform…” He trailed off, suspicion in his voice.

He didn’t have a chance to voice them however, as one of the mercenary scouts from their group ran up to them with a shout.

“Bandits spotted just outside the village! Damn…. There are a lot of them.”

“I guess they followed you all the way here.” Her father shook his head. “We can’t abandon this village now. Come on,” He raised his voice, turning to Bylia and her brother. “Hope you’re ready.”

Bylia just rolled her eyes. Of course she was ready, but she didn’t see why they were suddenly responsible for these three foolish teenagers leading a group of bandits right to the village.

She gripped the daggers at her sides and strode after her father. They’d better get paid for this.

____

  
Claude wasn’t surprised that of all the groups the mercenary group had sent out to find the bandits, the bandits had found them first. It had been clear to him from the start that these were no ordinary thieves trying to make a quick profit, these guys were too smart and organized. Someone was after him and his fellow house leaders specifically.

He filed the information away for further analysis as their enemy approached from out of the trees. While he and his companions were a little tired from the relentless chase they had endured to get to the village, he wasn’t concerned about their chances. Something about the tall, scarred mercenary sitting atop his horse, lance in hand spoke more of a seasoned warrior than a sellsword. He got the feeling that this guy could take out the whole group on his own. That wasn’t to mention the two teens that trailed behind him. His children, if Claude had heard right earlier when the female had called him “dad.” While they looked quite a lot like each other - twins even, he thought, they didn’t look much like their father, but had the same sharp eyes and battle seasoned air.

“Let’s take care of these thieves before they overrun the village.” The mercenary said. He turned to his children. “Take down the enemies in front first. That should take the wind out of their sails.”

They nodded wordlessly and took off.

With a battle cry, the young man rushed the nearest bandit, knocking the thief off balance with a startlingly fierce swing of his sword that clanged loudly in Claude’s ears, pivoted deftly, and easily dispatched him on the upswing.

While moving into position himself, his companions at his side, he had a brief moment to note that the girl was nowhere to be seen. He drew his bow and launched arrows at their enemies as Edelgard and Dimitri engaged a heavily armored bandit swinging an axe, the mercenary riding ahead past them deflecting an enemy arrow with his lance.

To his left, the young man swiftly felled another bandit with seemingly little to no effort.

“Wow,” Claude raised his voice to call out to him, yet not taking his eyes off his targets. “It’s because of you guys that I’m not dead right now. Thanks for that. I didn’t expect to run into mercenaries like you in some remote village. The gods of fortune must be smiling on me!”

The young man didn’t turn to face him, but Claude saw a brief smile on his face.

“I don’t need any gods.” He said simply, then rushed ahead without another word.

He caught up to Edelgard and Dimitri, who had bested their opponent and were scanning for whoever was next.

“He has a strange aura about him.” Edelgard said quietly from beside him. “They say they’re mercenaries but… let’s see what they can do.”

Dimitri narrowed his eyes at her words. “We are in their debt. It wouldn’t do for us to fall in a place like this. For now, they have graciously lent us their strength to drive out these thieves.”

Edelgard just huffed and charged off towards her next opponent.

A swordsman and a mage appeared to Claude’s left. He raised his bow, aiming at the mage first.

But he hadn’t had a chance to let his arrow fly before the mage suddenly toppled over, dead. Claude raised an eyebrow and squinted in the dark. There was a flash of smoky dark blue magic, and he briefly saw a figure next to the enemy swordsman before he too fell to the ground.

Stealth magic? That must be the girl, Claude realized. How odd. He hadn’t paid much attention to the young woman when they had met, but he had noticed a pair of daggers at her waist. She was apparently a mage, however.

The mercenary Jeralt rejoined them, the young man not two steps behind.

“We’ll advance while protecting ourselves from the enemy.” Jeralt instructed. “Byleth, take up position inside the forest. Bylia’s already there.” He turned to Claude and his companions as Byleth bounded for the trees. “If we’re in the forest, we can sustain their attacks without losing the advantage despite being outnumbered.”

Claude briefly wondered how he knew where the girl - Bylia, he now knew - was, if she was using stealth magic to hide herself. Then again, he’d never been able to hide from his parents either.

As they regrouped in the trees, Jeralt signaled to Byleth, the young man, as a group of enemies approached, weapons raised. “Now’s your chance. Use the combat arts I taught you.”

A strange symbol flashed in the air above Byleth’s sword, and when they were in range, he slashed his sword in a brutal swing from right to left, taking out all three at once. At the same time, a green light pulsed from the sword, and some of the light bruises on Byleth’s face disappeared.

At the unexpected display of power, one of the bandits in a group behind the main group spoke, his loud voice carrying enough for Claude to make out what he was saying.

“Damn! Why are there mercenaries in the village? Guess we’ll have to deal with them too.”

The rag-tag group pressed forward, the forest at their back. Claude knocked arrow after arrow, Dimitri spun his lance expertly, and Edelgard showed no mercy with her axe. Jeralt speared his enemies from atop his horse as if it were nothing, and Claude occasionally noticed some enemies randomly falling to their feet. Bylia no doubt. Most importantly, Byleth shredded through anybody who came in his path. He would’ve called the behaviour reckless if it wasn’t so obvious how ridiculously powerful this young man was.

“Hey you, with the arrogant stare! Outta my way!” Seems like he wasn’t the only one to notice. The bandit he’d heard from before was running towards Byleth, swinging a huge axe that compliment the man’s huge body.

Byleth was able to catch the blow with his sword, but the sheer force of the bandit’s swing sent him tumbling backwards. It seemed like no sooner had Byleth regained his footing that Jeralt had appeared in the axe-wielding bandit’s way, a menacing look on his face.

“What the?! Aren’t you Jeralt the Blade Breaker? What’s a renowned mercenary like you doing here?” He exclaimed in surprise.

“I’m the one who should be complaining.” Jeralt said back, ice in his tone. “I’m caught up in the mess _you_ started!” He exclaimed with a grunt as he attacked the man with his lance. The blow sent the mountain of a man sailing backward to land with a heavy thump on the ground.

After several moments of silence, Edelgard approached the dead man. “I should get a look at his armor. This was no mere bandit.”

Claude should have seen it coming. His companion had no sooner than reached for the man’s chestplate when he saw the body twitch. He didn’t have time to shout a warning before the man was on his feet, Edelgard sent sprawling to the ground, axe raised in a deadly arc about to end the young heiress’ life. Byleth was running towards her prone form but he could already tell she wouldn’t make it in time.

He blinked, and suddenly the man cried out in great pain and slumped over, this time truly dead. Byleth stood in front of Edelgard, and standing next to him, was Bylia. They both panted heavily and he saw the glint of the young woman’s daggers as she sheathed them.

There was a pregnant moment of confusion before the rest of the enemy turned tail and ran. The man must have been their leader.

Claude shook off the shock of the moment and ran over to Edelgard, extending a hand to help her up. Dimitri was right behind him.

“You alright?” Edelgard just shrugged off his hand and stood on her own. Dimitri began to question her the same thing when Claude heard Jeralt say something to his kids in a low voice, probably not trying to be overheard.

“Did you two just…” He couldn’t hear anything more than that, because there was a shout from the west and the clang of several people running in heavy armor.

“The Knights of Seiros are here! We’ll cut you down for terrorising our students.” He immediately recognized the voice. Leave it to Commander Alois to show up late. Claude shook his head. Useless. “Hey, the thieves are running away! After them!” He said to his knight underlings.

The leaves beneath the boisterous man’s feet crunched as he approach Claude and his group with an ever prideful grin.

“The students seem to be unharmed! And… who’s this?” The Commander asked as his eyes settled on their mercenary companions.

“Ugh… Why him?” He heard Jeralt groan.

Commander Alois seemed to perk up at the voice, his curious gaze immediately alighting on the seasoned mercenary with glee.

“Captain Jeralt?! It is you! Goodness, it’s been ages.” He said, full of excitement. “Don’t you recognize me? It’s Alois! Your old right-hand man!”

Claude raised an eyebrow. No way. This guy?

“Well, that’s how I always thought of myself anyway.” That was more like it.

Jeralt just listened to the man ramble with an expression on his face like he would give anything to not be here right now.

“It must have been twenty years ago that you went missing without a trace. I always knew you were still alive!”

“You haven’t changed a bit, Alois.” Jeralt sighed rubbed his forehead. Claude bit back a snicker. “Just as loud as ever. And drop that “captain” nonsense. I’m not your captain anymore. These days I’m just a wandering mercenary.”

Jeralt looked pointedly at Alois. “One who has work to do. Good-bye, old friend.”  
“Right. Goodbye Captain…” Confused, Alois had been drawn into Jeralt’s pace. “Wait! That isn’t how this ends.” He said with a shake of his head. “I insist that you return to the monastery with me.”

He felt more than heard a shift next to him, turning to see Byleth step forward threateningly. Jeralt stopped him wordlessly with a hand on his shoulder. Shrugging, he obediently stepped back. Bylia hadn’t moved, but was watching the man intensely.

“Garreg Mach Monastery…” Jeralt said with a sigh. “I suppose this was inevitable.”

Alois noticed Jeralt’s hand that still rested on Byleth shoulder with interest.

“And how about you, kid? Are you the captain’s child?”

“Yes.” Byleth said simply, not really seeming very amused with this man’s antics.

“I should have guessed!” Alois said, tilting his head back to laugh boisterously. “You may not look alike, but you’re clearly cut from the same cloth as the captain.” He belatedly noticed Bylia, quiet as she had been while standing behind her father.

“Oh my, and you must be his child too, you look so much alike. I daresay you two are twins?” Bylia just crossed her arms.

“Yes.” She replied dryly. Claude had been expecting something more like “obviously” or “duh” from the look on her face.

“I’d love for you to see the monastery too!” Alois exclaimed, “You will join me, won’t you?”

Claude saw her mouth twitch as she looked to Jeralt and then back.

“If my father does.” She said finally.

Jeralt looked like he wanted anything other than to be in this situation.

“What’s troubling you, Captain?” Alois asked rather densely. “You aren’t about to run off again are you?”

“Even I wouldn’t dare run from the Knights of Seiros.” He acquiesced.

“Brilliant! Let us be off, then.” Alois exclaimed, and then they were headed back to the monastery with a couple of extra people in tow. As exciting as this ordeal had been, Claude was looking forward to being behind some thick walls.

____

  
Bylia trekked silently beside her brother as they followed the road up to the monastery. As much as she wanted to complain, it seems her father was in a situation he couldn’t get out of, and she would die before she left him behind. So there was a reason her father had warned them against going near the church’s territory after all. Glancing over at Byleth, he seemed interested in observing the new area. He was always looking to learn more, even in the most ridiculous and sometimes perilous situations. She wished she had his same optimistic attitude.

“I appreciate your help back there.” The red-caped young woman she and her brother had saved earlier had fallen into step beside him, her two male companions a couple steps behind. “Your skill is beyond question.”

“You two are clearly experienced mercenaries. And your father… that would be Jeralt, the Blade Breaker? Former Captain of the Knights of Seiros. Oft praised as the strongest knight to ever live. Have I missed anything?”

“I actually never knew my father was part of the Knights of Seiros.” Her brother remarked.

“How curious.” Edelgard said, a bit of surprise flashing across her face. “I’d wager the explanation for that is fascinating indeed.”

Not really. It was pretty clear to Bylia that her father had wanted the two of them to be as little influenced by the entire Church of Seiros as possible. And yet here they were heading right towards it…

“Hey!” Bylia held back a startled flinch as she had been about to search their surroundings for a possible getaway plan. The young man wearing yellow had moved to walk to her left and was looking at her expectantly. “You are coming with us to the monastery, right?”

He didn’t even give her a chance to answer as he plowed on, “Of course you are. I’d love to bend your ear as we travel.”

Wasn’t saving them with no compensation enough? Now they wanted her to socialize. She was so telling dad and Byleth _I told you_ so as soon as they were alone.

“Oh, I should mention that the three of us are students at the Officers Academy at Garreg Mach Monastery.” The young man continued, oblivious to her reluctance. “We were doing some training exercises when those bandits attacked. I definitely got the worst of it.” He said dramatically, thumbing a bruise on his cheek.

“That would be because you ran off.” The young woman interjected, placing a hand on her hip as she glared. Yet her socialization-bent companion just took it in stride with an easy smile.

“Too true!” He said. “I was the first to make a strategic retreat. Everything would’ve worked out if _these_ two hadn’t followed me and ruined everything. Because of them, every single one of those bandits chased after us. Utterly ridiculous.”

To Bylia, this whole thing was utterly ridiculous. Who picks a bandit infested area to do student training exercises in the middle of the night?

“Ah, so that’s what you were thinking, Claude.” The blond one wearing blue said, his lips pressed together thinly in a display of irritation. “And here I thought you were acting as a decoy for the sake of us all.”

“His intentions were as clear as day, Dimitri.” The young woman chided. “You will prove a lacking ruler if you cannot see the truth behind a person’s words.”

Ruler? Just who had they gone and gotten themselves involved with. Why did nobody ever listen to her. This is why they couldn’t live a peaceful life.

“Hmph!” The blond one puffed out his chest indignantly. “You will prove a lacking ruler yourself if you look for deceit behind every word and fail to trust those whom you rely on.”

“Oh joy.” The other young man - Claude, the blond one had called him, said. “A royal debate between Their Highnesses. I wonder how being completely predictable affects one’s ability to wield power. Personally,” He continued, putting on a mock superior air, “As the embodiment of distrust, I’d say your little exchange smacks of naivete.”

That was apparently not the right thing to say to the stuffy young woman.

“Me? Naive? Tell me, are you actually incapable of keeping quiet, or is your lack of self-awareness a condition of some sort?”

As if sensing that things were about to go downhill, the blond one turned to her and her brother.

“In any case, forgive our digression. I must speak with you, if you can spare a moment.”

Did they have a choice?

“The way you held your ground against the bandits’ leader was captivating! You never lost control of the situation. It showed me I still have much to learn.” Bylia hoped he wasn’t about to ask her how they had done it, because she couldn’t even begin to explain something she didn’t understand herself.

“Your skill is precisely why I must ask you to consider lending your services to the Empire.” The woman had completely switched gears, her face now a composed regal mask. “I might as well tell you now. I am no mere student. I am also the Adrestian Empire’s-”

“Halt, Edelgard.” The blond interrupted. “Please allow me to finish my own proposition.”

These clowns hadn’t even properly introduced their names to she and her brother and they were already trying to manipulate them into doing their bidding. Not only that, they were fighting over who got to have them like some kind of chew toy. This was the future royalty of this area?

“The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus is in dire need of exceptional individuals like you two.” He continued, holding them with what he probably considered an irresistibly imploring gaze. “Please, do consider returning to the Kingdom with me.”

“Whoa, there!” Claude said before the two of them had a chance to respond, or in Bylia’s case, turn him down. “You two sure are hasty. Trying to recruit someone you just met. Tactless, really.”

Now that was more like it.

“I was personally planning to develop a deep and lasting friendship on our journey back to the monastery before begging for favors.” Or not. “But it seems there’s no time for niceties in this world. So, capable strangers, let’s get right to it. Where does your allegiance lie?”

Bylia glanced at her brother, but he had an odd spacey expression on his face. He couldn’t seriously be considering this, could he?

“With our father.” Bylia said firmly, before they got themselves any further into this mess.

She was spared their inevitable cajoling as they approached the outer monastery gates, Commander Alois calling over to them that they had arrived.

“Looks like we’ll have to continue this another time.” Claude quipped, winking directly at Bylia and her brother. She narrows her eyes at him in response. He just smiled and made off, his companions following suit before splitting to head their separate ways.

Their spectators gone, Bylia relaxed and stepped closer to her brother, smacking his shoulder.

“Finally gone! Why didn’t you say anything? You aren’t considering joining any of those manipulative mini-nobles, are you?”

“Edelgard is quite the refined young woman.” He said with a grin.

Bylia gasped and smacked his shoulder again. “Byleth, no! Besides, she was staring at you like she was trying to dismantle you, examine all your parts, and then put you back together in the form of her personal bodyguard doll, not like she wanted to give you a kiss.” She shuddered. Ew, ew, ew!

“Well, Dimitri seemed genuine enough at least, don’t you think?” He remarked.

Bylia scoffed, “More like desperate. We follow that guy and we might as well forget about ever coming back.” His Kingdom’s mess wasn’t theirs to clean up.

“What about Claude, then? He seems friendly.”

“Yeah, seems. Can catch a lot more flies with honey than vinegar and he clearly knows it.” Bylia hated people like that. If someone was going to shamelessly use them they could at least have the decency to be honest about it instead of hiding behind pretty words and a fake smile.

“Enough about them.” Byleth said with a yawn. “Let’s just catch up with dad.” Bylia couldn’t agree more.


	2. Requisitioned, Refused, Recruited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strange people at the Church of Seiros force the twins' father into rejoining the Knights of Seiros after twenty-one years of his avoiding them, and are rather bent on making Byleth their new professor.

By now, morning had dawned, and the sun bathed Garreg Mach Monastery in a warm glow. The view was breathtaking, but it looked more like a castle fortress than a monastery to Byleth. Those thick stone walls and spires were meant to keep some people out, and some people in. 

It seemed the Officer’s Academy started rather early in the morning, as he could see several students in uniform out being instructed in magic, and there were classes already in session as he and his sister passed by a corridor of large oaken doors, slightly open to reveal the students in rows of desks inside.

Byleth followed his father outside into a large courtyard, his sister trailing behind, no doubt wanting to turn around and leave as soon as possible. His sister had never been one for large crowds, not to mention religion. Not that he was either, he mused, feeling uncomfortable despite the breathtaking scenery. He had the strange sensation of being watched.

“Rhea’s here.” His father said, looking up at one of the battlements. Following his father’s gaze, Byleth saw a heavily ornamented beautiful green-haired woman wearing holy garments. She was looking right at them, expressionlessly. 

The gesture in and of itself would’ve been creepy, and it was, in a way, but Byleth was more concerned about the odd sense of familiarity he felt upon looking at this woman. He was pretty sure he’d never seen her before in his life. He squinted, noticing her lips were moving. She was however, of course, way too far for him to hear a word.

They stepped into the audience chamber, Byleth eyeing the large gold throne that was framed by the extravagant stained glass window right behind it. It seemed to be a depiction of some kind of green-haired angel with large wings and great pillars of yellow light.

“It’s been years since I’ve last set eyes on this place.” His father ruminated. “To be forced to see her now…”

“Who, that woman up on the battlements?” Byleth had not realized his father would have any connections to the church he’d always warned them to stay away from. “You’ve been here before?”

He grimaced and scratched the side of his beard, “Yes. I’ve never spoken of this to you or your sister before, but many years ago, I was a knight here. I reported to the archbishop, Lady Rhea… that woman up there.”

“Just who exactly are these people?” Bylia had been quiet until now, as something of a protest of them being there in the first place, but it seemed the information had been sufficient bait to draw his sister out of her reticence.

“As you know, the majority of folks in Fodlan are devout followers of the teachings of Seiros. The leader of that ridiculously large religious organization is the archbishop, Lady Rhea.”

Byleth was confused. If that was true, then why had his father agreed to come here?

It seemed his questions would have to wait, as the Archbishop herself and a similarly dressed green-haired man at her side entered the room and strode over to them.

“Thank you for your patience, Jeralt.” The green-haired man spoke in a prim tone, “My name is Seteth. I am an advisor to the archbishop.”

“Right. Hello.” 

“It has been a long time, Jeralt.” Lady Rhea’s voice was similarly formal, but had a rich sense of grace that enveloped each word. “I wonder… was it the will of the goddess that we have another chance meeting like this?”

“Forgive my silence all these years.” Byleth watched in surprise as his father bowed to the woman in respect - he’d never seen his father lower his head to anyone. “Much has happened since we last spoke.”

“So I see. The miracle of fatherhood has blessed you.” Rhea’s gaze fell on his sister briefly, then on him and lingered. He couldn’t tell with her composed facade, but for a moment it looked like she almost smiled. “These are your children, are they not?”

“Yes. Born many years after I left this place. I wish I could introduce you to the mother of my children… but I’m afraid we lost her to illness.” His father’s voice grew tight, like it always did when he spoke of their mother.

“I see.” Lady Rhea lowered her gaze politely. “My condolences. As you for you…” Rhea spoke directly to him this time. “I heard of your valiant efforts from Alois. What is your name?”

Was it just him or was she ignoring his sister? As incredibly beautiful as the woman was, Byleth was beginning to have his doubts about this place. He crossed his arms petulantly.

The green-haired man scowled at him.

“You must at least show the basic courtesy of telling us your name!” He huffed indignantly, “Do you not think you are being a bit rude to the archbishop?”

So now _ he _ was the one being rude. 

“It is all right, Seteth.” Lady Rhea said quickly, raising her hands to pat the air gracefully, as if to placate Byleth. “My dear, I am called Rhea. I am the archbishop of the Church of Seiros. In truth, I was only being polite. I already know your name. And a fine name it is.”

Byleth raised his eyebrows. How could she possibly know his name? He was just now meeting her for the first time. Maybe his sister was right not to trust these religious types, this was getting creepier by the minute. But Lady Rhea didn’t seem to wish him any harm…

“From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for saving those students of the Officers Academy.” 

“...I couldn’t have done it without my father and sister at my side.” He answered, keeping his tone neutral to soften the obvious correction in his words. It seemed Lady Rhea wished to hand all the credit to him, alone.

His father beside him hid a snort of amusement as a cough.

“Jeralt. You already know what it is I wish to say, do you not?” At Rhea’s words, all traces of amusement left his father’s face.

“You want me to rejoin the Knights of Seiros, don’t you.” His father answered reluctantly, rubbing his temple like he always did when he was displeased. “I won’t say no, but…”

The sharp intake of air Byleth heard from his sister mirrored his own shock. 

“Your apprehension stings.” Rhea shook her head, “I had expected that Alois would have already asked this of you.”

Thankfully, her expression lightened. It seemed she wasn’t going to force their father into giving her an answer right now. However, she once again returned her attention to Byleth.

“I must step away for now, but I expect _ they _ will desire a word with you soon.” Who was _ they _? “Please listen carefully to what they have to say. Until tomorrow… farewell.”

No sooner had the two departed than his sister was already fixing his father with a questioning glare. She clearly wanted an explanation. Byleth did too.

His father sighed. “I can’t believe it. Forced back into the Knights of Seiros. I’m sorry I dragged you two into this. Looks like I’ll be stuck here for a while… and I’m afraid your services will be requested as well.”

“What?!” Byleth was really confused now. “I thought we were leaving with the Green Snake Mercenary group at dawn tomorrow. These people don’t seem to be in need of help from mercenaries like us.”

“They have something over you, don’t they dad.” Bylia had her hands on her hips like she usually did before an argument. 

“Not like that, Bylia, I just… owe Lady Rhea. And you’re right Byleth, it’s not your services as a mercenary they seem to want. They want you to teach, if I’ve guessed right. You heard those brats earlier talking about the Officers Academy, right?”

By ‘those brats’ he assumed his father meant the three teenagers they’d rescued that night. Byleth nodded slowly, confused as to where this was going.

“Well, the academy just so happens to be short a professor. And apparently, that damned Alois went and recommended you to Lady Rhea.”

Byleth was struggling to wrap his head around this. Sure he was good with a sword, but in what world could he possibly even begin to be qualified to be a teacher? He was only eighteen for goodness sake. 

“Why just me and not Bylia?”

“Hmm, well considering her… _ style _, I doubt he saw much of her on the battlefield, if at all.” That made sense, at least.

He was about to ask more but pressed his lips together as he noticed two new people approach him and his family. 

“So! You must be the new professor. My, how stern and handsome you are!” A mature looking woman wearing a rather daring dress that boldly exposed her bare decolletage and cleavage was eyeing his father shamelessly. 

Gross.

“Er, no.” His father laughed nervously, clearly also uncomfortable. “I’m not the one you’re looking for.” His father glanced apologetically at him and his sister. Oh no, don’t tell me he was about to-

“You can take it from here.” His father said, “And… watch out for Lady Rhea.” He murmured quietly knowing only the two of them could hear, before making haste to the nearest exit.

Jeralt the Bladebreaker his ass! For all his bravery on the battlefield, his father had never been able to handle women. Bylia seemed equally annoyed, and looked like she was almost debating running after their father instead of staying here and finding out more.

Byleth had no idea what this Lady Rhea was thinking, making him a professor like this. Creepy knowledge aside, there was no doubt that this was their first meeting, ever. She must be up to something… he resolved to stay on his guard.

“Oh, it’s you then?” The woman asked, still shameless in the face of having driven his father away. “So young…”

“Competence and age are not necessarily correlated, as you well know.” The sharply dressed man with a monocle chided his companion.

“I am Hanneman,” He nodded at Byleth in greeting, “A Crest scholar and professor at the Officers Academy. I wonder if you bear a Crest of your own. When next you have a moment to spare, I insist that you pay me a visit so we can delve into the subject further.”

What was a crest scholar doing at a church academy?

“And I’m Manuela. I’m a professor, a physician, a songstress, _ and _ available. It’s nice to meet you.” The woman said fixing Byleth with a saccharine smile. This woman was really not afraid of putting herself out there was she. Maybe it would’ve been more charming if she didn’t look old enough to be his mother.

“_You’re _ a physician?” She didn’t look like the nurse type to him.

“I look too pretty for that line of work, do I?” The woman laughed. “But yes, when I’m not teaching, I can be found in the infirmary. If you’re ever lonely, please do come and pay me a visit. I would love to-”

“Spare our new colleague the needless chatter Manuela, please.” Hanneman interrupted her before she could continue, thank goodness. “Now then, it seems you’ll be taking charge of one of the academy’s three houses. I expect you haven’t yet been briefed on the nature of each, have you?”

He hadn’t been _ briefed _ on the nature of anything regarding this whole professor thing. Just who _ were _these people?

“Do you really not know? Fine, I’ll do you a favor and explain.” Manuela said, benevolently. “The Officers Academy is comprised of three houses of students, each of which is closely affiliated with its region of origin. The Black Eagle House is for the students from the Adrestian Empire. Their house leader this year is Edelgard, the Imperial princess, who is in line to be the next emperor.”

“The Blue Lion House is for the students from the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus.” Hanneman piped up. “Their house leader this year is Prince Dimitri. He is to be the next king of Faerghus.”

“Lastly, there is the Golden Deer House, which is for the students of the Leicester Alliance.” Manuela continued. “Their house leader is Claude, grandson to Duke Riegan, the leader of the Alliance.”

“To think that the next emperor, king, and sovereign duke are all here. It certainly is a promising year for the academy.” Hanneman mused. 

He’ll say. What was this academy doing allowing such important young heirs out unprotected?

“Yes, it is! I just hope none of those little treasures cause any trouble.” Manuela said. Something from her tone made Byleth think they already had.

“Hm, quite. For now, I suggest taking a stroll around the academy to get your bearings.” Hanneman suggested. “And when you’ve a moment, please stop by my research laboratory.”

“The old man has a point.” Manuela nodded in agreement. “Oh, and keep in mind that I’ve only notified the house leaders that you’re our new professor. It’s more fun that way. I suggest you try spending time with the students. Some odd ducks in that bunch, but they’re good kids.”

“Hold on a minute.” Bylia spoke up, striding to stand in front of her brother. “I can see the church isn’t interested in my brother’s opinion on accepting this position, so for now I’ll just ask: We’ve come a long way and haven’t had a chance to sleep yet. Since you want us to stay I assume you’ll provide shelter and compensation?”

“Ah, of course.” Hanneman looked uncomfortable, like he hadn’t expected them to question anything. “As a professor working here at the academy he will be given a corresponding salary similar to ours. A room has been prepared for you in the northern dormitory, your brother’s name is on the door.”

“I’m sure Lady Rhea will have more information for you tomorrow.” Manuela said reassuringly. “That should be enough to get your going for now. Good luck, professor.” 

He could feel the tension within his sister at the dismissal, and would’ve pressed for more, but she just turned to him and shook her head exasperatedly. Hanneman and Manuela took their exit.

“That went well.” He remarked dryly.

“Yeah, definitely. Let’s just go find where dad went off to and then get some sleep.” 

Byleth yawned and nodded in agreement. He was always sleepy, and staying up all night had not helped that. Time to go find his father, and a bed. Maybe not in that order.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, hope you enjoy this chapter. Let's see how our twins take their new situation at the Officer's Academy... and what will become of Bylia, whom Rhea strangely doesn't seem interested at all.


	3. The Subtle Nuances of Subterfuge

Turns out there was just one room, and one bed. They really didn’t want her, did they, Bylia mused. It was no matter, despite her brother’s big frame she was sure they’d both fit for now. Regardless of the circumstances, a bed was always lightyears better than sleeping on the ground. Her brother had taken one look at the bed before kicking off his jacket and boots and immediately conking out. She was a little envious of his ability to sleep in this hornet’s nest. Tired as she was, her restlessness had her investigating the room instead. At least the door had a deadbolt. 

She noticed her father must have found out where the room was, because both her and her brother’s packs lay on the floor at the foot of the bed. He’d also left a note. She smiled at the chicken scratch that looked like he wrote it in a hurry, but it was just her dad’s typical awful handwriting.

_ My apologies for leaving you two with just this, but the Knights of Seiros wasted no time assigning me to a mission that requires me to leave this morning for a place in the south of House Ordelia’s territory. You know how to contact me if you need me. I’ll be back within the week. _

_ Stay Vigilant. _

Well, this threw a wrench in her getaway plans. Looks like they’d have to stay here until he got back. At least they seemed to have the intention of treating Byleth well, for now. She glanced at his sleeping form.

Taking a seat in the padded desk chair, Bylia’s thoughts wandered to their earlier battle. Something very odd had happened, and now that she had a moment to think, her sudden appearance at her brother’s side after stopping that bandit leader’s attack was on her mind. She had been in the process of taking down an enemy archer that was trying to hide in the trees and flank them when she had felt a strange yanking sensation, and she’d opened her eyes for a moment to see only black and strange glowing green lines before she blinked, and she was standing next to her brother. She’d been even more surprised to find herself suddenly visible despite definitely being invisible the moment before.

That had never happened. For as long as she could remember, she’d had a strange ability to will her physical appearance to fade from sight. It had started when she was a child, randomly flickering out of sight and spooking the daylights out of her dad, she’d been told. After a while, she’d learned how to do it on command. It was like letting out a breath after holding it for a long time, the same feeling of relief and sagging of her body, and then she was invisible to all others. 

Dad hadn’t ever told her why she could do it, but on her eighth birthday he’d presented her with a magic blue ring and told her to use it whenever she vanished or reappeared. The ring made produced a brief illusion of blue wispy magic around her body. She’d asked him why, at the time, and he’d said it was so that he’d always know where she was even when he couldn’t see her. Once she got older she realized that her ability was more unique than she’d thought, and that he’d probably wanted to prevent her from getting any unwanted attention.

There were a handful of times where she’d used it unintentionally, but it had been at least ten years since that had happened. Up until now. It was incredibly odd. Maybe her brother knew something about it. She’d have to ask him when he woke up.

Bylia sighed and accepted the reality that she wasn’t going to be able to sleep. She contemplated getting a look at the Monastery and finding out more about the place they were apparently going to be trapped in for the next week., but she didn’t want to have to deal with people talking with her, especially the house leaders hell-bent on recruiting her family. 

She smirked. Time for some sneakery then. After all, what good was having the ability to go invisible if you couldn’t use it to eavesdrop. She twisted off her ring and put it in her pocket, and faded out of sight. 

Taking care to shut the door quietly behind her, she slipped out to investigate. 

Silently striding along the ambulatory to avoid the students, guards, and odd knight walking on the lush green grass next to the naves. Inspecting a bulletin board on the wall next to her where the dormitories ended, she was disappointed to find that there wasn’t any map of the place posted. She pondered for a moment, then spotted a young man wearing large glasses very engrossed in a book reading as he walked slowly. His uniform marked him as a student. She figured that if she followed him she’d be led to a classroom, and doubted he’d notice her presence considering how distracted he was. Invisible as she was, stone floors were the hardest to disguise her footsteps on. 

Carefully tailing the young man, Bylia followed from a few paces behind as he took a right, then a left onto a long straight bridge-like raised walkway. To their right and left where open spaces of grass with pristinely trimmed green bushes with off-white marble statues and deep mahogany park benches. There were a few students seated there, but most of the occupants seemed to be people employed by the church, as they were wearing holy style garments instead of the Officer Academy Uniform. 

The walkway ended in stairs that led up into a very large building, with a grand set of enormous doors that seemed to remain open all day. Bylia followed the student up the stairs and into a grand foyer. Large chandeliers lit the area inside and up on the clerestories were more stained-glass windows like the ones she’d seen in the room they’d met Lady Rhea in. The ribbed vaulting of the building made it seem like the ceiling went on forever. Must be a pain to clean those windows, she mused, considering how high up they were. 

The young man turned left and walked through the open doors of a large classroom decorated with golden banners hung on the walls. Rather than follow him, Bylia stayed in the foyer. There were several students out here, and she was sure that she’d learn something from the large gathering here. Besides, though the young man was the only one in the classroom - he appeared to be cleaning a large black chalkboard - she didn’t want to go inside and get stuck if she wasn’t able to sneak back out before they closed the doors. She doubted she would be detected but she wasn’t sure how long the class would be and didn’t want to have to stick around for the whole thing. 

Picking a spot and leaning against the wall, Bylia tuned in to the conversations around her. 

After about fifteen minutes or so of sorting through idle teenage student chatter, she’d learned a few things. The Officer’s Academy had been founded by the Church of Seiros almost fifty years ago, and students to the academy either had to be from a noble family, get a worthy recommendation, or have some connection to someone who had made a substantial donation. Graduating from the academy, especially with high marks, was regarded as an extremely honorable accomplishment in society, and in some noble circles was expected of young heirs in order to inherit control of their house. 

She also learned that the monastery was fully decked out with several functional and recreational facilities, including a greenhouse full of valuable medicinal and alchemical plants, a stable, a dining hall, a huge multi-level library, a merchant bazaar, something that was a combination of a blacksmith and an armory, a surprisingly not catch release fishery, a sauna that students could win access to for winning in various competitions such as tournaments and events, and a tea garden that from her understanding seemed to be used for mandatory one on one social meetings between students that were a part of the testing of their etiquette class.

That was just what she had heard, there could be more. Were she not hiding she would have let out a low whistle of respect. They must be getting quite the donations to be able to support a place like this. 

Bored of the current conversation of several female students around her - discussing who was the most handsome young man at the monastery whilst giggling and blushing like virgins - she silently made her way down the hall, ears perked for any interesting conversations. She was almost at the end of the hall when she heard her father’s name. Getting closer, she noticed it was the three teenage students she and her family had saved earlier, as well as a tall ginger girl with short hair. 

“-never knew Jeralt had kids.” The ginger girl was saying. She had a loud, casual way of speaking that made Bylia think she was probably not a noble. “Can you believe it? You’d think he’d tell his greatest apprentice something that important.”

“He never mentioned them even once?” Dimitri tilted his head curiously, the graceful motion causing his straight bangs to fall just so into his face. “That does indeed seem odd, but perhaps at the time he wished to protect them from acclaim. I certainly doubt that fame benefits a job such as a mercenary.”

“No, he not even once! And during the four months he trained me I never even saw them! ...Think they’re adopted? They don’t look like him at all.”

“I doubt it.” Edelgard crossed her arms skeptically. “He does not seem the type to desire children so badly as to go to the lengths of adoption.”

“Who cares if they’re adopted?” Claude said, raising his arms to clasp them behind his neck. “I know you noble types care a lot about pedigree, but when they can fight like _ that _… well, I can see why Lady Rhea wasted no time in putting their talents to work for her. Can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same.”

The ginger girl frowned and put a hand on her hip. “I bet I could beat them. They may have been raised by Jeralt, but they weren’t trained by him to be his great successor like I was.”

Wow, rude. Who even was this girl? Dad certainly never mentioned her before. It was laughable that she thought a mere four months training under her dad made her more worthy of him or whatever it was she was getting at. Bylia resolved to just glare at the girl for now, despite being tempted to reveal herself and ask just what she thought gave her the right.

“We will get the chance to evaluate them further soon, once he accepts his position as professor and chooses a… house…” Edelgard stiffened and trailed off. Her eyes scanned the hall as if looking for something.

“What is it, Edelgard?” Dimitri raised an eyebrow in almost dainty curiosity at the shrewd young woman’s uncharacteristic distraction.

Edelgard continued scanning the hall, and for a moment Bylia swore she looked right at her. She nervously clasped a hand over her mouth and nose to disguise the sound of her breath, her heart pounding. After a moment that felt like an eternity to Bylia, Edelgard’s eyes continued to comb the hall before exhaling with irritation. 

The other students were just looking at her odd behaviour in confusion.

“I just had the strongest sensation of being watched.” Edelgard said as way of explanation.

Bylia had to admit, she was impressed. Of course the young woman hadn’t been able to see her - nobody ever had, when she went invisible - but clearly possessed a strong sense of intuition.

“Sure you aren’t just tense from all that hard work trying to beat us in last week’s mixed combat tournament?” Claude teased her with a smug grin. 

Edelgard scowled and the two launched into an argument - if you could call it that, since Edelgard seemed like the only one angry of the two. They were interrupted by the chiming of a church bell, which seemed to be the signal for the start of class, and the students in the hall filed out into their respective classrooms, eventually leaving Bylia alone in the hall save for a few monastery servants. 

After the brief scare of nearly being detected, she finally felt tired enough to sleep. Heading back the way she came to return to their room, she hoped that by the time she next woke up, she’d receive better news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody! Brief delay on the release of this chapter because I had to come up with some classes, figure out who they are gonna be taught by, and do some research on the layout of the monastery and make decisions about what I was gonna keep and what I was gonna tweak... yadda yadda.  
Anyways here's wonderwall.. jk, here's Bylia shamelessly sneaking around. Hope you enjoy.  
Chapter 4 out soon as usual, probably within the next 48 hours~!


	4. The Price of Refined Tableware

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bylia is allowed into the academy as a student, Byleth eats, and the three house leaders continue their relentless efforts of recruitment.

When Byleth woke up, the sun was low casting long rays of orange light into the room. He stretched with a yawn, and got up off the bed, careful not to disturb his sister who was still sleeping to his side. Spotting a note and his pack, he quickly read the note - from his father - and then rummaged in his pack for his comb. The desk had a small oval mirror which he used to comb his hair - he always got a bit of a bedhead after sleeping for a long time. After he was satisfyingly suitable for public, he changed his clothes to reflect the cooler temperature here at the monastery. Having read his father’s letter, he figured that he’d give the whole teaching thing a shot, since although he’d said he would be back in a week… if they’d been that fast in putting him to use there was a pretty good chance he’d be back and gone again in the blink of an eye.

Despite his decision to acquiesce to the church’s wishes for now, there was one thing for sure he’d make sure they understood: he and his family were a package deal. He wasn’t going to lift a finger for them til they offered the same deal to his sister. 

His irritation from earlier flared up and he pressed his lips together, leaving the room quietly but full on stomping after it was closed as he went out to go find that Lady Rhea and set things straight. 

Byleth was currently having a staring match with the uppity green-haired churchman from earlier, Lady Rhea’s assistant Seteth. It had taken him a while to find them, due to the monastery not only being huge and crowded, but also because he hadn’t remembered where the staircase up to the second floor where the throne room was and had stubbornly wandered around trying to find it before giving up and asking one of the monastery servants for directions. He’d walked in on the man insisting he and his sister weren’t trustworthy, and had right then and there discarded any notion of diplomatic talk and made it clear to them that he wasn’t teaching without his sister. 

Hence the glaring match.

“I understand your feeling of devotion to your family.” Lady Rhea said, attempting to lift the tension between the two. “I cannot make your sister a professor like yourself, as there was only one position open, but if you desire it so I can see to it that she is enrolled here as a student, so that she may stay by your side.”

Byleth contemplated for a while. This wasn’t exactly what he had wanted, but it was an honestly surprisingly accommodating proposal. 

“Will there be enrollment fees?” He asked finally.

“We will waive them for her, of course.” 

“Alright.” Byleth said. Seteth was glaring again. “...Thank you.”

“Of course, dear child.” Lady Rhea smiled at him. “We will see to her enrollment. In the meantime, have you spoken with the three house leaders and chosen who you will join yet?”

“Not yet.” Byleth shook his head.

“Most classes have already been adjourned for the day, but I am sure that you will find them in the dining hall. You should share a meal with them, as I presume you have not yet eaten for a while.” She suggested.

That was true. His stomach had been growling on the way there.

“As a professor here you are welcome to use any of the facilities here as you wish. Our kitchens have many capable and prestigious chefs, so I am certain there will be dishes served that are to your liking.” She gazed at him warmly as she spoke.

She was sounding more like a mother by the minute. Time to leave.

“Thanks, I’ll go do that.” He said, making to leave.

“Until tomorrow, dear child.” 

Accepting his fate readily this time, he just asked someone for directions to the dining hall as soon as he left Lady Rhea’s chambers. Thanks to this, he arrived there a lot faster. 

There was a delightful smell wafting from the large room, and Byleth felt his stomach growl as he stepped through the doorway to the dining hall. It was funny, he could go a while without eating but once the hunger caught up to him, it all hit him at once. His father had once compared his eating when he was hungry to a ravenous wyvern. He liked that, it made him sound tough. His sister, on the other hand, said it made him look like an angry chipmunk storing food for the winter. That, he didn’t like as much. 

Turns out that delectable smell was Daphnel Stew. It seemed word of his appointment had already spread, because the dining hall servers just heaped the food on his tray with a smile and a “Hello, professor!” He got two large bowls of stew, five slices of rye bread, and a giant cinnamon sugar cookie. Grabbing a glass of water, some utensils - he marveled briefly that they appeared to be made out of silver - and a large folded napkin, he went and sat at the less occupied end of a large wooden table. If you could call it a table, it was made from very fine thick wood, and the large bench type seats were padded with a long red cushion that extended from one side to the other. He sat down and dug in.

So _ this _was what it was like to live like a noble. He recognized, among the beef and rabbit, chunks of lamb meat in the stew. It was impossibly tender. The last time he’d eaten something so fancy had been a few days after his fifteenth birthday. They’d just finished a job in protecting the young heiress of a particularly wealthy and upcoming baron house, and in gratitude the family had treated him and his father and sister to dinner. 

“First time eating with silver utensils, I take it? They say it makes the food taste better but I’ve always thought it was more fun to eat with your hands.” Byleth had been so engrossed in the food - and the memories too! - that he hadn’t noticed all the seats around him had filled with curious students watching him unabashedly with expressions of curiosity and excitement. He recognized the speaker as Claude, the friendly one of the three house leaders he’d met last night. 

“Ah! Eating with one’s hands? How unsightly. Surely you must be joking, Claude.” The tall young man with a red rose on the breast of his uniform seemed scandalized by the idea, an expression of pure disgust on his sharp features.

“Don’t tell me you eat sandwiches with a fork, Lorenz.” A ginger girl with short hair rolled her eyes - a striking amber color - at his antics. “Aren’t mini sandwiches a ‘refined and enjoyable novelty’ with the noble crowd right now?”

Lorenz scowled. “While it is appropriate to use one’s hands to eat sandwiches, the proper size and proportion of the sandwich must be according to standard to prevent offensive bite sizes.” He patted the napkin on his lap indignantly. “Also, I do not believe there is anything wrong with using a fork and knife to more gracefully partake of a sandwich, according to etiquette.”

“Forks and knives aside, I heard you officially scored a teaching gig here. Talk about a great first impression.” Claude said, leaning forward with a grin. “I guess that means I’d better introduce myself properly. I’m Claude von Riegan. I’m from the ruling house of the Leicester Alliance, but don’t worry too much about all that madness.”

He took a bite of bread and chewed it thoughtfully before continuing. “I’m guessing you don’t know which class you’ll be teaching yet, do you?”

Byleth just shook his head, not wanting to be impolite but he was hungry and would rather use his mouth to eat than talk at the moment. 

“I bet you’d like ours.” Claude replied, “We’re not as… difficult as the other two. Since I’ll bet you haven’t had a chance to meet the folks from the Golden Deer House yet, I can introduce them to you.”

Byleth shrugged.

“Well, first off, that right refined young gentleman over there is Lorenz. He’s the heir of Gloucester territory. If you haven’t already picked up on it, he’s a bit arrogant and fancies himself a lady’s man. That said, deep down he’s really devoted and honest… Though I wouldn’t mind never hearing him talk about his noble obligations ever again.”

He had, in fact, picked up on that. It didn’t really bother him though, he was pretty used to dealing with noble types since they frequently hired the Green Snake company, if anything it was amusing.

“The anti-fork and knife sandwich eater there is Leonie.” Claude continued, nodding at the ginger girl. “She enrolled here because she wants to be a mercenary. I think she said that her father is a hunter. She’d pretty blunt and as stingy as they come. A habitual saver, too. I think she’d hoping to repay her village for helping to send her here.”

Byleth took a bite of the cookie - his father wasn’t here to chide him for eating his desert first, after all. It was divine. 

“Those two over there are Hilda and Marianne.” Byleth followed Claude’s gesture to a couple of girls who appeared to be gossiping amongst themselves. Or rather, the pink-haired one with the pigtails did, the blue-haired one just seemed like she needed a nap or three. 

“Hilda is the only daughter of Duke Goneril. It seems her father and brother coddle her quite a bit. If you look up “lazy” in the dictionary… her picture won’t be there because she never got around to submitting it. Not too unusual for a noble, I guess.”

Ouch. He didn’t doubt what Claude was saying but it was too bad, she was pretty cute, a mischievous smile on her fair face.

“Marianne, her partner in crime, is Margrave Edmund’s daughter… and that’s pretty much all I know about her. She doesn’t interact much with other students besides Hilda, and even that seems like a one-sided thing, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of folks here have never even heard her speak.”

Byleth was really tempted to get another cookie, but felt too uncomfortable to do it with all the eyes on him. Bummer. 

Claude directed his attention to another guy this time, a tall, bulky, chiseled one who was going at his food with the same gusto Byleth just had. 

“That’s Raphael. He comes from a merchant family, but his parents died in an accident. Seems like he’s had a rough life. Despite all that, he’s just about the most cheerful guy you’ll ever meet. His passions are training, eating, and… actually, that’s about it.” Claude eyed Byleth's now empty plate. “I think you two may really hit it off, in fact.”

“The last time I ate was more than twenty-four hours ago.” Byleth said with a defensive shrug. Now that he was done eating he was more willing to talk.

Claude laughed. “So this was just a one-time thing, huh? We’ll see about that.”

“Anyways, there are a few other members in the main class, Lysithea and Ignatz, but I don’t see them here in the dining hall. Lysithea always eats quickly, and Ignatz…” Claude put his hand to his chin thoughtfully. “Well I’m not sure about this but I have a suspicion that he prefers to eat in his room.”

“There’s a couple of other classes in the Golden Deer House, but they’re lower classmen so you won’t be in charge of teaching them anything. I’m not too familiar with them since I’m only responsible for leading the upper class division.”

“That makes sense.” Byleth nodded and took a sip of his water. 

“So when are you joining Golden Deer?” Claude said with a winning smile, leaning back in his chair clasping his hands behind his head.

“Not so fast, Claude.” There was a dulled thump sound.

“Hey, ow! Yeesh Edelgard, lay off the head, that’s where I concoct all my brilliant plans.”

The young woman assertively sat across from Byleth with a scoff “brilliant, are they?”

The blue-clad leader of the Blue Lions was also suddenly taking the spot next to her that had miraculously become free the moment Edelgard sat down. Byleth would’ve laughed but he was suddenly feeling very much like predator-cornered prey. 

“Thanks for the introduction.” He said, gathering his things and making to rise from his seat. “I should be going now though, I think I was supposed to see Seteth to pick up my sister’s enrollment documents and uniform-”

“Wait!” Edelgard’s hand was suddenly on his shoulder, pushing him down. Her expression almost comically went from intense to what he assumed was her version of a friendly smile. “I am certain that upon hearing of the Black Eagle house, your interest will be piqued.”

“And the Blue Lions.” Dimitri joined in.

“Oh, but-”

“I insist!” Edelgard said through the clenched teeth of her smile. Byleth slowly sat back down.

Ignatz had the right idea of it, eating his meals in his room, Byleth decided with an inner lament for his unfortunate situation as he resigned to his fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let :clap: Byleth :clap: eat!! This is canon and ppl can fight me over it as I aggressively have him eat 3 meals in a row to raise morale. Also an artist on twitter with the same brain has drawn this so that's proof.  
Also this is being posted before midnight so technically I posted two chapters in one day, yayeet! *raphael voice* I'm on a roll!
> 
> Press f to pay your respects to Byleth's suffering that is about to ensue.


	5. Hook, Line, and Sinker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claude is determined to get what he wants. And that being difficult is just more of a motivator that makes it all the sweeter when he finally gets it.

It was fitting that the weather outside matched Claude’s mood on such a fine day as this - warm and sunny with just the right amount of breeze and the distant smell of rain that would never make it up the mountain, but filled the air with a pleasant tinge of petrichor. And why was it such a fine day, might you ask?

Well that would be precisely because he’d successfully pulled off one of his most important plans hook, line, and sinker. The smug grin hadn’t left his face since he’d heard the news. 

Yes, it was true, the new capable Professor Byleth had chosen Golden Deer House. _ His _ house. How had he accomplished this feat? It was simple, of course, all he’d had to do was coax the other two house leaders into showing their more intense side while _ he _ provided a reassuring, I’m-on-your-side support that appealed directly to everything he sensed the professor was feeling. Add a little friendly joking, a little appeal to his commoner upbringings by cementing his image as being down to earth and far apart from the noble nonsense… the charmingly comical additions of his classmate’s banter had been the perfect cherry on top. 

It was almost criminal for him to be so good. He couldn’t help smiling every time he thought of the look on Byleth’s face when Edelgard forced him to sit down. 

It was in that spectacular mood that he found himself outside the classroom earlier than he’d ever been on a Tuesday morning. After all, could anyone really blame him for being this motivated?

He was about to push open the doors when he heard raised voices from inside. On instinct he froze, and pressed his ear closer to the door to hear more. 

“-can’t believe you would just decide that for me without even asking! I don’t wanna be here.”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry Bylie. It was the best I could get out of them though! I really have no clue what they have against you. But you don’t need to worry about getting bullied, I won’t let that happen. I asked Rhea this morning if they would give you your own room since you’re a student here now and she said yes. Really though... you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. I didn’t mean to drag you into this.”

“Ugh, no, I’m not leaving you and dad behind. Lady Rhea definitely has _ something _ on him and this is probably the best opportunity we’ll get to find out what it is. He’s never let anyone tell him what to do before and she just… looked at him and he rolled over backwards. It was creepy.”

“_Yeaaah _ she’s pretty odd, I’ll admit. I think she wants to adopt me or something.”

“Oh no no _ no_, I’m gonna _ gag_, that’s disgusting!”

He heard the two share a laugh.

“Hey, it won’t be all bad though.” Byleth said after a pause. “This place is huge and has tons of great facilities that they’ll let us use for free. The food is amazing. They’re paying me quite a lot too. And I heard there’s a recreational fishery!”

“You’re not wrong on that one. I’ve never eaten such a big breakfast willingly in my life.” He heard her snort. “And I’m not surprised the fishery is what you’re excited about. You two always could do that boring activity for hours.”

“It's not boring! I’ll have you know we were discussing very important stuff between men the whole time.” Byleth huffed.

“Psh, yeah right.” 

“Don’t underestimate the honor of two men craftily catching their next meal, needing not the protection of shirts, because if the sun is out the guns are also-”

“_ Don’t! _\--make me remind you of the time you were watching your reflection flex in the water and ended up with a hook in your arm. Hey!”

It sounded like something had been thrown across the room.

“Oh I am so getting you _ back _ for that, _ Professor _ Byleth! What kind of teacher throws his… what _is_ this apple thing and why is it so heavy?? - _ whatever_, at his students!”

He wasn’t exactly sure what was happening but he heard the scraping of a wooden desk or maybe a chair against the floor and several thumps.

And then they were silent for a while. It was long enough to make Claude think maybe they were done talking.

“...I wish dad was here.”

“Me too.” 

Ooh, now it was starting to get juicy. He was very, very curious to hear them talk about more on a deeper emotional level. He could really use that kind of information in his efforts to make a loyal friend out of Byleth. They were speaking more quietly now, so he leaned forward to hear more.

“Excuse me.” Claude almost jumped out of his skin. He whirled to see Marianne standing behind him.

“M-Marianne! How long were you standing there, with um, _me_ so rudely blocking you from entering!” He laughed nervously as he recovered, wondering just how long the quiet girl had been standing there. Luckily, she looked half asleep and like she didn’t even care that she’d just caught him snooping. “My sincerest apologies, right this way.” He said with a theatrical bow and sweep of his arm as he stepped back.

Hey, if she was content not to acknowledge the situation, so was he. 

She just gripped the books in her arms tighter and gazed at the ground as she pushed the door open and entered the classroom. After a couple moments to make it seem natural, Claude sauntered in as well.

“G’morning Teach!” He said, in his loud infectious-joy voice. 

“Ah, good morning.” Byleth replied awkwardly, seeming to be not used to his new position at all. Which was understandable given that he was pretty much the same age as the rest of them. That being said, the glasses he was wearing along with the long wooden pointer somehow complimented his stoic image perfectly. Though the broad shoulders did take away a bit from his scholarly air.

Marianne was sitting in her usual spot at the very back, hiding her face effectively behind a large book. He mentally clucked his tongue, that wasn’t good, he’d have to work harder to get her to open up.

His gaze shifted to Bylia, who was sitting on top of a desk in the front rather than on it in a display of casual rebellion, and did a double take. He hadn’t gotten a very good look at her when they’d first met, due to it being in the middle of the night and she had been wearing dark clothing. Now, in the bright light of that filtered in from the large arched windows, he had a full unobstructed view of the young woman. 

Wow.

It took him a moment to realize that she was, technically, wearing their academy’s uniform. That was because she’d heavily altered it - opting to remove the white turtleneck completely for a sweetheart cut instead that bared her smooth pale decolletage and ample cleavage with a mole on the top right of the left swell. She’d chosen shorts instead of a skirt, but more notably than that were the black lacy tights that covered the expanse of her exposed legs down to the short black short-heeled boots she wore. Her long sleeves were tight to her arms until they reached her elbows, were they split open and hung on either side in a style that mirrored the coat her brother was wearing. Her wrists were bare but for a couple of moles, but he noticed a ring on the middle finger of her right hand that had a deep blue gem that sparkled mysteriously when it hit the light. Having been trained to recognize such things, Claude noted for further analysis that she was in possession of a piece of magic jewelry. Not uncommon for a noble to possess, but definitely a bit unusual for a common mercenary like her.

Her face reminded him of a feline. Though pretty, her upwards-slanting dark eyes gave her an aggressive air, with a straight nose and sharply arched eyebrows. She wore her eyeliner thin and sharply winged, which contributed to the air. The corners of her moderate lips seemed to perpetually slant downward. There was something sensual about the mole that was just under and to the right of the fullest part of her bottom lip. Her long, layered dark blue almost black hair was down, but she had clipped part of the hair on the side back with an oddly shaped black pin that resembled the pattern on Byleth’s shirt.

It was, in Claude’s opinion, a _ very _ interesting and frankly unanticipated expression of personality. Considering the closeness he had observed in the siblings earlier, it was definitely worth his while to get close to the young woman as well if he wanted to make a deep, lasting relationship with Byleth.

“Hey Bylia.” He said in his best make-friends tone, sitting in the seat next to hers and propping his elbow on the desk and leaning his head against his hand, fixing her with a smile. “While I can’t say it's not a surprise that you joined our class, it’s definitely one of the good ones. Welcome to the Golden Deer!”

The young woman made a face. “Thanks.” 

Looks like he was right earlier to assume that she was here against her will. 

“I’m curious, what classes did you decide to study? You strike me as the kind of person who knows a thing or two about magic.”

“Not really.” She’d crossed her arms - a sign of disinterest, he was surprised to note. Hmm, that was odd, he thought she was a mage. Okay, so that was wrong. 

“No? Professor Hanneman does a decent job at keeping things interesting despite his tendency to get a bit carried away. He does a lot of hands-on stuff.”

“Oh.”

Okay, a definite no on that one then.

“Gonna do swordsmanship? I heard your brother will teach that. You can choose whatever specialty to focus on you know, that’s the best thing about combat class. That, and the magic simulations which allow you to pull out all the stops instead of having to keep to nonlethal combat.” He dangled the carrot, and he’d be damned if she didn’t bite - almost everybody did, it was one of the most impressive things at their academy.

Her eyebrows twitched.

Hah, gotcha.

“Nonlethal combat doesn’t exist as a mercenary.” He watched as she dug a piece of paper out from her bag and handed it to him.

“My classes.” She said, and then scooted off the desk and moved toward the back and sat down, staring at something fascinating outside the window.

Damn, cold! Yeesh, so much for his charming smile. Alright fine, he liked a challenge. As the rest of the Golden Deer students filtered in, he turned his attention back to the easier of his two targets and started in. 

“So Teach, I hope you aren’t having first day nerves. I, for one, am an avid believer in your leading capabilities.”

“Oh, really? Thanks.”

Today was looking up to be a fine day indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dan bylie your bobbies...  
That's a very interesting ring you have there. Would be a shame not to find out what happened for it to come into your possession.
> 
> Possible preview of next chapter: *clears throat* "Um hi class... I'm Professor Byleth." *writes professor byleth on the board and misspells the word professor with two fs instead of s* "But you can call me Byleth. I'll be your homeroom teacher starting today. This is the note basket of shame, which is where all the secret notes you try to pass to each other in class will go if I catch you. Alright so um let's start with... an icebreaker?"
> 
> The duality of Claude's well-intended ambition and friendly disposition coupled with his sneaky, schemey fake ass is what I live for. Little does he know that it will come back to bite him in the butt when he ends up catching feelings. 8)


	6. Little Girls and Veiled Threats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Byleth and Bylia confront what happened with the bandit leader and their new school life.

“Not that I’m not used to the sight of a bunch of books in your room By, but these don’t seem like your usual genre.” Bylia picked up a thick book from his dresser and made a face as she read the title. “Tactical Minds: A Comprehensive Guide to Controlling the Battlefield.”

“Yeah… not my preferred choice in reading material. But hey, I’m a Professor now.” Her brother said smugly, rolling his neck with a hand on his shoulder. 

“Teacher stress, huh?”

“Yeah.” He said with a groan as he pressed harder into his shoulder. “Turns out that staying still sitting at a desk looking down at papers for an extended period of time is hard on the neck muscles. He winced. “And the wrist.”

“Want me to do that thing dad always does?”

Byleth laughed, “You mean the crack cure? Sure, if you want. Assuming you can lift me, that is.” He flexed his bicep with a grin. 

“Shut up and stand over here, muscle man.” Bylia said with a roll of her eyes. And people confused _ her _ to be the younger sibling? 

“That’s _ Professor _ Muscle Man to you.” Her brother said, but obligingly rose and walked over to stand in front of her and lifted both arms up straight to shoulder height. 

“Don’t tempt me to break your back.” Bylia moved in front of him and moved her feet apart, bending her knees, and made as if to hug him, clasping her hands securely behind his back and adjusted her position before lifting upward with a yank. 

There were several loud pops. After a moment, she repeated the action, and again a bit higher on his back to make sure she got all of it. She stepped back and clapped her hands together, brushing them off in a self-satisfied gesture. 

“I think that was all of them.”

Byleth gave an experimental roll of his shoulders. “Ah, much better. Damn, where’d you learn how to do that so well?”

“Just watching dad.” Bylia said smugly. 

“They should be calling him Jeralt the bone breaker with how good he is at being a casual chiropractor.”

Bylia laughed, “As long as they aren’t calling him Jeralt the back breaker.”

Byleth grimaced. “Nooo!”

Bylia screwed up her face in a similar expression of disgust at the idea and the two dissolved into laughter. After a minute they calmed down, falling into a comfortable silence. Bylia scrunched up her eyebrows and leaned against the wall thoughtfully.

“Hey By?”

“Yeah, what?”

“You know the other day when that bandit group attacked?”

Her brothers face was suddenly pale. “Yes, what about it?”

“...Did you... teleport me to you?” She wanted to smack herself at how ridiculous it sounded out loud, but she had to ask! She’d just suddenly appeared at his side, visible as day.

“No, not exactly.” Her brother exhaled and slumped against his bed. “I’m not even sure myself but I _ think _ I…”

“Go on.”

“You’re not going to believe this but I think I turned back time. Except not me, the weird mystical ten year old girl in my head did.”

“The green-haired one you always dream about?” Bylia leaned forward, eyes wide. She’d heard of time magic but only as very limited, slowing down or speeding up time for a few seconds and it required a very few select powerful mages and magical relic to do it. 

Byleth nodded. “Except I was definitely _ not _ dreaming, and she’s usually asleep in her chair. This time, she stood up and talked to me. She said her name is Sothis. She doesn’t remember anything else except her birthday - which, as if this could get any weirder, is the same as ours - and doesn’t think she’s a ghost but doesn’t really know _ what _she is.”

“How do you know she turned back time? And that still doesn’t explain why I suddenly appeared next to you, visible.”

“Uh well… I actually…” Her brother scratched at his neck like he did whenever he felt guilty and refused to meet her eyes. “Sort of died? Or was about to, anyways. That guy hit me with his axe, but Sothis stopped time and spoke to me, and summoned this circle of symbols, turned back time several seconds back and then I raised my sword in time to block the bandit’s blow.”

“And I was next to you.” Bylia finished. Well, as odd as it was, it was just in the realm of believable. Not like her brother would ever lie to her. At least not about something more serious than who ate the rest of the leftover food. And he’d been having dreams about this little girl for as long as she could remember. 

She scowled. “I can’t believe you almost died. You’re lucky that mystical ten your old was there to cover your distracted by saving the pretty girl ass.”

Byleth laughed nervously. “Yeah, I know, I’m sorry. I just acted on instinct! … Said mystical ten year old was mad at me too, gave me her ghostly earful for ‘trying to get her killed.’”

Bylia swallowed thickly. “I’m glad she’s on your side. I owe her one.” She bit her lip. “She really didn’t say anything about me?”

“No, but she did say that we’d have to be near each other for her to turn back time properly. I didn’t exactly have time to ask questions.

Ugh, typical. Why did everyone always treat her like an afterthought when it came to her brother? Whatever, she had homework for the first time in her life and decided that since it was something she had power over, it was more worth it to work on that instead than trying to solve this _ incredibly _ weird situation.

Despite having her own room now, Bylia preferred to spend time with her brother in his. With dad gone on his trip, being on her own in that small quiet room just felt like being in a prison cell. Besides, whenever her brother bunkered down and focused on something, even his loud mouth could be completely quiet for several hours. 

Since her brother was on the bed, back to reading - though not a textbook this time she noticed with a quirk of her lips as she recognized the fantasy novel title - she spread her papers and books out on the floor, sitting criss-cross to contemplate which to tackle first.

Every student at the academy took six main classes, and at least one additional elective. The main six consisted of Magic, Ancient Language Studies, Tactics & Weaponry - which her brother now taught, Etiquette, History & Geography, and Combat Training. Not having much of an interest in field surgeon, treasury management, diplomacy classes or… really _ any _ of the rest of the available electives, including chorus. Ew. Instead, she’d settled on the Subterfuge class. She’d always wanted to learn how to pick a lock, but never had the chance since while on missions with her dad he’d usually just break off the handle of whatever impeding door they encountered in their way.

She picked up a sheet of parchment in a pinch with an expression of distaste on her face. History & Geography was proving to be the most difficult for her. Dad hadn’t ever really enjoyed discussing this kind of stuff with them, saying the past was better off staying in the past and who cares what noble did what when. As a result she lacked what seemed to be common knowledge of Fodlan’s past when compared to her classmates, which was vexingly embarrassing. At least her classmate Lorenz seemed to be happy to help fill the gaps in her knowledge whenever she was called on and just stood there feeling like an idiot. It would’ve been insufferable under normal circumstances but since it was actually useful she didn’t really mind. 

Unfortunately, she couldn’t say the same about his frequent attempts to propose a potential engagement with her. But she’d heard him propose an almost identical speech to several other of her female classmates, so she figured he wasn’t serious in pursuing her. 

She’d thought to start with the hardest first, and then coast clear when it was over, but after reading the first several questions on the worksheet and finding out that she didn’t know the answers to any of them, she abandoned that idea. Good thing she couldn’t give a damn about her grades since they were going to be leaving at the soonest opportunity anyways.

How about starting with the easiest instead? She picked up her etiquette homework and set to work. It wasn’t like she knew everything about noble society but she’d been raised working for several of them, and most of it was guessable when given multiple options to choose from. Though it was the easiest, it was by no means the most enjoyable. First off, most enjoyable definitely went to combat class, and second, she was starting to lose her patience with that annoyingly persistent Claude. During tea time, which was how they practiced what they learned each lecture in etiquette class, he seemed determined to turn into a how-many-personal-questions-can-I-ask-in-fifteen-minutes experience instead of a pleasant chat over tea and snacks. Her mind went back to recall the torturous ideal.

\--

“I find it exceedingly interesting that the Goddess hasn’t yet blessed you with a knowledge of the names of the Four Saints. I had been under the impression that such a promising young lady such as yourself would have had a suitable enough education under your father to provide you with the knowledge of more of this blessed country’s glorious past.” Claude had leaned forward in his seat with exaggerated grace and eyed her shrewdly from behind his sip of tea. Despite using class-appropriate terminology, he still managed to sound irritatingly casual.

“How could this possibly be?”

“I am honored your venerable self has spared the humble me such benevolent interest, but I am afraid I must apologize for my inadequacy. I do hope Your Noble Grace will forgive me for failing to rise to your expectations.” Bylia had responded, careful to keep ice out of her tone. 

Irritated as she was, she was determined not to give an inch. Besides, the whole point of the class was to keep your composure even in the face of dangerous conversation.

“There is no need to apologize, I simply find your unique predicament fascinating, Lady Bylia.”

She had nearly choked on her tea. 

“As I am not from a noble family such as your venerable self, Lord von Riegan, as I am sure you are aware, you have no need to address me as a Lady.”

“Indeed, but how could I not address the grace and beauty of a lady such as yourself?” He’d taken a delicate bite of a blueberry pastry. 

She’d swallowed thickly, and took an elegant sip of tea to wet her dry throat. Why did he always volunteer to be her partner for etiquette class? She would rather endure Leonie’s awkward attempts at refined speech as she grilled her about her dad than this. 

“My, you flatter me so, Lord von Riegan. Far be it from me to accept those sweet words, surely there is something you desire of me, to vy for my favor so.” Checkmate. If she got him in this one she’d get enough points to end the tea time early. 

“How could I possibly think such a thing when the fair lady already wears a ring on her finger so proudly? Such fine workmanship, it must be the work of a renowned craftsman, yes? May I take a closer look?” Bylia had glared and bitten down just slightly more aggressively on her cookie than was appropriate.

Claude had raised an eyebrow and smiled at her charmingly as he waited for her to come up with a reason to deny him. She’d taken a slow sip of her tea to stall for time as she scrambled to come up with a reason.

“My apologies, my lord, but I am afraid a simple commoner such as myself does not know who made this ring, simply that it is a most precious gift from my father for my birthday many years ago. So precious it is that it would greatly disturb me were it to get lost or damaged, therefore I hope you understand my reluctance to take it off and risk such a thing.” 

“Of course, I understand completely. Then, may I have the honor of this lady’s hand so that such a thing need not be risked?” 

She’d stared at him before reluctantly giving him her hand. Their hands were both bare, since gloves weren’t allowed on at the tea table. As he surveyed her hand - or her ring, she supposed - with a rapt expression of curiosity, she couldn’t help but think it was the most charming expression she’d seen on his face so far.

It’s not like Claude was all bad, but what irked her about him was that he was always incessantly asking her questions about herself. And her brother. He probably just wanted to use her to get close to Byleth like everybody always did. She was used to that, honestly, that had happened all her life. It was just depressing to see him treat her classmates with such interest and amiability and have them respond in kind, and know that for her it was all fake. 

The thought had filled her with such hot irritation that she had elegantly but firmly pulled her hand out of his grasp. 

“Thank you very much for the tea, Lord von Riegan, it was delicious. I am afraid our time is up. Invite me again sometime.” She had said perfunctorily, and then rose and took her leave.

\--

“Hard at work on your etiquette homework, I see. And here I’d thought you would rebel, but look at you being such a good student.” Her brother’s voice broke Bylia out of her thoughts. He was peering at her mess over the side of his bed.

“Don’t fool yourself into thinking I’m enjoying this.” Bylia waved her pencil at him in a mock warning gesture.

Byleth snickered. “And that is why _ I _ am the teacher and _ you _ are the student.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and raised the pencil threateningly.

“Hey, hey! Don’t hurt me or I’ll have to _not_ tell you the good news I just remembered.”

She pressed her lips together and lowered the pencil. 

“I’m listening. This better be good.”

“The academy is hosting a mock battle on Friday. The three houses are going to compete against each other and whoever wins gets to use the sauna for a night.”

“Oh, the forbidden sauna? I heard Hilda gossiping about that yesterday, she said that only high ranking members of the church are allowed to use it.”

“Yep, and that’s not even the best part.”

Bylia raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

“I heard that father is going to be leading it as a referee. He apparently volunteered to.”

She immediately sat up straight. “What?! What is he thinking? I thought we were going to leave when he got back.” She clucked her tongue irritatedly. Usually, she didn’t press her dad for details when he didn’t want to talk about something, but this was starting to get out of hand. 

“I don’t see the harm in us staying here longer. Maybe father doesn’t want you to miss out on a chance for an education after all of his failed attempts to home school us.”

Bylia just grunted and shook her head. She was going to find out why dad was so willing to stay in the lion’s den despite his warnings to her all her childhood. And this time she wasn’t taking “I owe Rhea” for an answer.

“Come on, it will be fun! And since I’m leading our house, there’s no way we won’t win. Don’t you want to relax in a nice, steamy sauna?”

“Wow, humble much?” Bylia grumbled, but smiled despite herself at his antics. “Alright, fine! It does sound like fun. I don’t know about the sauna though, unless they have good quality towels.” She said with a pointed look at her bust. “Don’t want to repeat what happened last time we went to one.”

Her brothers face got stony and he gazed towards the door with a serious expression. “Don’t worry, if it does, I’ll kill anyone who looks.”

Bylia grimaced and laughed. “Good to know I can always count on you to protect my honor, but I doubt the academy would take kindly to the new professor killing his students.”

“I’ll just blind them then.” Byleth said, deadpan.

“I don’t think that changes the situation. But nobody ever said you can’t give them an F on their next assignment for no reason.” She suggested with a giggle.

“Hmph. I guess you’re right.” He didn’t look satisfied but he went back to his book, leaving Bylia to wonder just what he would really do. Despite her protests her dad and her brother had always been protective of her when it came to being hit on by men.

Must be in their blood, she thought with a shrug and reluctantly resumed working on her homework.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the delay! I was making an official poster for this fic which took me several days to finish, but it's done now, woohoo! I'll be posting it at the start of chapter 1 if you'd like to see it, or you can go here to view it: https://twitter.com/sansarret/status/1161815454295478272. As a result I have several chapters worth of synopsis that I wrote during my breaks from drawing so chapter updates should be quick~ anyways enjoy don't come near my sister you horny teens or you're dead Byleth.


	7. Battle of Wills

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for the mock battle! Real time style instead of turn based. The Officer's Academy has some interesting magical tools that they can afford thanks to the many generous donations to the church.

All throughout Garreg Mach, excitement was in the air. Byleth had to admit that despite feeling more like a tutor than teacher, he too was getting invested in the spirit of House pride. It had made the others - his students, technically, but he didn’t really think of them like that- laugh earlier when he had joined in on their new “Sign of the Golden Deer.” It sounded cool but it was actually just holding both hands, fingers spread, up behind your head like a deer’s antlers. It had apparently been Claude’s idea, and he’d come across Leonie and Hilda flashing the sign at a very confused Dimitri and Dedue. They had been cajoling Marianne, who was too shy to do the pose to join them in chanting “fear the deer!” with a disdainful Lysithea crossing her arms and rolling her eyes at their “childishness.” That was when Byleth had walked by and they had squealed “Shoot, it’s the Professor!” He’d stared at them until they fidgeted… and then turned to the Blue Lion leader’s direction and wordlessly flashed the sign of the golden deer. He had to say he had thoroughly enjoyed the flabbergasted look on all faces present before adding a confident “Fear the Deer” and continuing on his way. 

He was now sharing a morning meal with Raphael, whom he had become fast friends with as Claude had somehow predicted. Raphael was just like him, and seemed to really understand the important things in life. Namely, eating, getting stronger, and protecting one’s sister. He wasn’t much of a fishing fan sadly, but he appreciated the meat a fish had to offer at least. Fishing had always been more of a one on one thing with his father anyways.

“Hey Professor, if we win, I wanna send Maya a gift along with my victory letter. But what should I give her?” Raphael asked him cheerfully between bites of his sausage. 

“Hmm…” Byleth pondered the things his own sister liked as he chewed his bite of waffle.

“Does your sister like clothes?” He asked, thinking of Bylia’s eccentric fashion taste.

“Uhh not really. She prefers books to new clothes.” 

“Why not get her a book then?”

Raphael groaned. “That’s what I thought! But she already has so many and I don’t know which ones she doesn’t have. She’s really smart, and likes to read a bunch of really hard academic stuff.”

Byleth nodded and took a long draw of his orange juice. “How about this? Since she is a scholar I’ll bet she could use some nice writing utensils. Maybe you could get her a custom pen with something nice engraved on it like her initials or a message from you.”

Raphael bolted upwards in his chair with an excited shout. “Yes, that’s perfect! Wow, Professor, you really are amazing. Thanks!”

Byleth laughed. “I am pretty great. But nah, man, I can just relate to not knowing what to get as a gift for your sister. Don’t mention it.” He raised his hand for a fist bump.

“Alright!” Raphael smiled and returned the fist bump. He stood up, plate now empty. “Aw man I’m so fired up now! Today is gonna be great!”

As Byleth finished his own meal, he couldn’t help but agree. After all, he’d always been one to enjoy a little friendly competition. Best not get ahead of himself though, they still held classes for half the usual school day before beginning the mock battle. 

He stood at the lectern later that day considering his previous naivete. Man oh man, he hadn’t known just how much he was in for teaching on a half day. Not a single person was focused on his lecture on the origins and most renowned techniques of welding a steel lance. Not even his own sister, whom he noticed was alternating between glaring at Leonie and Claude. Leonie must have said something about father that got her riled up, Byleth guessed. Claude though, he had no idea. Claude was a friendly, but strange, strange man. He’d literally come across him making a mild stomach poison earlier. At first he’d thought the cavalier young man was joking as usual, but no, it was seriously a laxative that Claude had been considering using, no doubt on the opposing house teams to ensure them the victory. Claude had denied that, of course, but the mischievous glint in his eye had told Byleth otherwise so he’d made it clear that he wouldn’t allow his house to fight in any way other than fair and square.

Why was nobody in class paying attention, you might ask? Well that was because they had taken to playing a game of who could make the most secret signs of the golden deer when he was facing the board away from them. Lysithea was apparently on board now because by his count she was winning. He had excellent peripheral vision. Which is why he had also noticed Hilda and Marianne passing notes to each other. 

Byleth pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled deeply, setting down his wooden pointer. 

“Give me the notes.”

The giggles stopped but nobody spoke up. 

“The notes, Hilda!”

Hilda gasped. “Why professor, I have no idea what you could be talking about! Unless you mean my notes on the lecture?”

Byleth raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms with a derisive snort. “You, take notes on a lecture? I might be new here but I already know you well enough to know you don’t take notes.”

“Well, see, I actually do, just not directly! I encourage other people to take notes and then they share it with me. I give them the motivation they need, and they give me lecture notes! It’s a win win for everyone, truly.”

He wasn’t about to get into the whole “stop delegating your tasks to other people” thing, that was a task for another, much less hectic day. So he just walked up to their desk and wordlessly confiscated the scrap of paper they had been passing to each other and placed it in the basket on top of his desk. Marianne was blushing so deep a red he almost felt bad for how mortified she was bound to be for the foreseeable near future, but rules were rules. 

“This,” He patted the basket, “Is the basket of shame. I catch you passing notes not related to the lecture, they end up here.”

His students started contritely back at him with a nod of their head. 

“And don’t think I don’t see you making the sign when I turn my head. I get it, I’m excited too, but you guys fail the test because you miss all the lancer questions, that will ruin both our weekends. Anyways, back to what I was saying.” 

Ignoring some murmured whispers about him having eyes in the back of his head, he continued his lecture, praying just as much as his students were for the bell to ring.

\---

Claude surveyed the vast field on the outskirts of Garreg Mach, taking note of the terrain they would be traversing with a careful eye. The three houses, their leaders and professors, and Teach’s dad Jeralt the Blade Breaker - who was present to referee the mock battle - stood atop the hill as Jeralt prepared the mock battle equipment they were about to use.

Turning to Byleth, he nudged him in the side.

“Time for a mock battle, eh? Hmm, how should we go about this… as you know, you’ll be our commander.”

“I’m still not sure why.” Byleth responded with a shrug. “Because like I’ve already told everybody I have eighteen years of mercenary life to offer, but I’ve never exactly been in charge of any troops.”

“Hey, don’t worry you’ll do fine. Just don’t screw it up and everything’ll be great. Got it, Teach?”

Byleth snorted and crossed his arms. “Yeah, sure.” He said dryly.

Claude thumped him on the back. “Relax! Besides, I’ll be there to do whatever I can to help too. I mean, I’m kind of obligated to anyways. Like, for example… if I add a little something to their food to upset their stomachs, then we’d-”

“Don’t even think about it, Claude.” Byleth seemed to know he was joking but rolled his eyes at him just the same. “My efforts to prove myself will be ruined if they find out you _ poisoned _ the other houses so that we could win.”

“Yeah, yeah, wink, wink. I read you. You can’t officially condone that sort of thing anyways.” Claude raised his arms and patted the air placatively. “...But say, _ hypothetically _ speaking, students from the other houses started racing to the infirmary - as far as anyone knows, it could just be a harmless little stomach bug making the rounds!”

“Well, well, what a fascinating conversation you two are having. May we join?” Having overheard them, Edelgard approached the two, Dimitri in tow, before Teach could utter another word of protest. She did not look happy - that made him grin. This was going to be fun.

“Claude, I can’t believe you would stoop to such crooked schemes to gain the advantage. Have you no honor?” Dimitri sounded positively affronted at the idea. Ahh Dimitri, always so honest and straightforward. It was refreshing.

“If that was really my scheme, I wouldn’t be talking about it in the open.” Claude winked at him. “I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until our battle to see what’s really in store.”

Edelgard scoffed. “It’s irrelevant anyhow. Whatever you have planned won’t save you from a crushing defeat.”

“She has a point.” Dimitri had his arms crossed over his chest, but the smile on the young man’s face told Claude he’d finally caught on and realized he was joking. Mostly. “Still, I’m rather eager to see what sort of schemes that mind of yours conjures up.”

“Oh? You heard ‘em, Teach.” Claude winked at Byleth with a shit-eating grin. “We can’t let these fine folks down!”

“Alright, fine.”

Claude choked. Had he somehow misread Byleth? He had totally pegged him for the serious, honor-chasing type. He studied Byleth’s stoic face, looking for a sign of jest.

“...Are you serious, Teach?” Byleth just raised an eyebrow at him. “Uh… well, if a crooked scheme is really what you’re after, I’ve got more than a few of those up my sleeve.”

“-As if I’d say that.” Byleth cracked a grin, and Claude had to hand it to his Teach - he had a decent poker face. He’d gotten him that time.

“Wow, I can’t believe you would trick me, your own right-hand man like that. And you all get on my case for schemes, honestly the nerve, I-”

“Aww, how precious. Looks like you and the students have become fast friends.” Claude turned to see that Manuela and Hanneman had come up to their steadily growing group. It was probably almost time for the mock battle to start.

“While I am pleased that you are taking the initiative to acquaint yourself with the students, I’m afraid it’s about time for the faculty to start passing out the mock battle equipment. Afterward, Jeralt will explain the rules of the battle.” Hanneman said, adjusting his monocle.

The group shuffled to the front, Byleth breaking off to follow the professors. Claude tuned in to what Jeralt was saying.

“Hello everyone. As you all know, I’m Jeralt. I’ll be overseeing this mock battle, so listen well if you want to win. Each house will start out in a different area on the field, equal distances from each other. Led by your team leaders, you will engage the other houses in combat. Each person has three strikes before they will be teleported back to the starting area, hits that would be non lethal are one strike worth each, hits that would be lethal are worth three. Every ten minutes, your healer can choose one person to give back a strike.”

Jeralt held up a chain with a small rock on it. “Each of you will have one of these. This will indicate how many strikes you have left. If you’re full up, it will be green. One strike, yellow. Two strikes, orange. And when you reach three strikes it will turn red and bring you back here.” 

He set the chain back down and held up an arrow with a wide flat circular end that bent easily. “Archers will be using these instead of normal arrows. Magic users will use illusion magic, and melee will use wooden weapons. This should go without saying, but this is a practice battle, no foul play allowed.”

The professors were handing out the mock battle equipment as Jeralt spoke.

“Magically enhanced items such as critical rings and evasion accessories are allowed, use of vulnerarys are not. If, at any time you get injured, feel unwell, or need to leave, you can activate the automatic teleport rescue by doing this with the rock on your chain.” He demonstrated the motion. 

“Finally, each house has a chest with a golden key in it located in their area. You can steal other houses’ golden keys if you are the first person not of that house to touch the key. Keys cannot be restolen. After the battle is over, the total keys collected by each house will be added to their point score for winning the Dragon’s Valor award at the end of the year.”

“Oh, and of course, the winners of the mock battle will be allowed in the Sauna of Seiros tonight as a reward for their hard fought victory.” Jeralt finished.

“Alright,” He said with a clap. “Follow your professors down to take your position on the field. The battle begins when the horn sounds.”

Claude followed Byleth’s lead as they made their way down the hill, they and the rest of the Golden Deer splitting off from the large group of students to head east. They passed by several dirt footpaths and small clusters of trees, walking for several minutes until they came to a stop in a sparse clearing, a large wooden chest painted golden resting on the ground. 

“So, this is the stage for the mock battle… this place never ceases to amaze me with it’s extravagant grandeur. I almost can’t believe all this land belongs to the church of Seiros.” Claude remarked with a low whistle. “Anyways, you ready, Teach? Lead us to victory!”

Byleth just rolled his eyes but smiled, his nerves before gone and seemingly replaced by a confident grin. Claude was so glad he’d snagged him for themselves. He gave himself another pat on the back for successfully recruiting Byleth to the Golden Deer.

“First off, I want Ignatz, Lysithea, and Marianne to stay here and guard the chest.” The three in question nodded. “Winning the battle is more important than getting all the keys, but keeping our own should be easy enough. The rest will follow me, heading west to try to rout the enemy and let them take each other out first. We’ll need to take care not to get flanked. Raphael, Hilda, and I will be at the front, Lorenz and Bylia at the sides, Leonie and Claude at the back. We-”

“Uhhh Professor?”

“Yes, Hilda?”

“I may use an axe, but I’m just a dainty flower! I won’t be any use to you on the front lines. Why don’t you have me guard the chest with the others? I’m rather good at protecting pretty little trinkets.”

Byleth shook his head. “I need you on the front lines with me, Hilda. And like I said, winning is more important than the keys.”

“But-”

_ Voooooooooooo! _

“That’s the horn, time to go! Everybody stay focused.”

The group heading west moved forward, and those remaining took up defensive positions around the chest. Soon, they were out of sight as the Golden Deer cautiously moved forward, keeping to the trees for cover.

Claude was pleased that their avoidance strategy seemed to be working after several minutes of walking. They’d heard the clang of weapons though, so they knew the other houses had already found each other.

“Hmph. What glory is there to be had in sneaking around like cowards? This is not befitting of the noble name of Gloucester.” Turns out Lorenz was ever a critic for anything not grand enough to meet his expectations.

Claude palmed his face with a sigh as Lorenz took off on his hose into the forest to the north, heading towards the noise.

“I don’t suppose you had a plan B, did you Teach?”

Byleth looked calm despite the situation. “We’re sticking to the plan, but I need somebody fast to go get him back. Any volunteers?”

“Don’t look at me.” Hilda said. “I’m so slow with my tiny legs.”

“Alright. Leonie could you-”

“I’ll go.” Bylia spoke up before Byleth could finish. 

“Okay, Bylia.” He nodded. “Everyone else, stay in formation.”

Claude watched her take off for the trees, her normally down hair swishing back and forth in a high ponytail as she ran, hoping she had more luck than he did with weathering the stubborn young man. He had known from the start he had his work cut out for him if he wanted to make an ally out of the conservatively minded heir, but considering the power of House Gloucester he had no other choice. 

\---

Lorenz approached the red chest cautiously, a self-satisfied grin on his face. Looks like glory was to be his today after all - he’d been coming up on the edge of the forest when he’d seen a couple of Black Eagles defending their chest against some Blue Lions trying to steal their key. As luck would have it, they ended up taking each other out, leaving the chest unguarded for him to seize the key within. 

Lifting the lid, he was about to reach for the glimmering golden key when something suddenly barreled into him from behind, sending him tumbling.

“Watch out!”

“Wh-what the?!” He grunted in pain as he hit the ground roughly, but before he retaliated he recognized the person who tackled him to be... Bylia? Before he could ask her what in Fodlan she was doing, a whistling sound whizzed by his ear.

Several of the special mock battle arrows thudded against the chest where he had just been standing, bouncing off and landing in the grass. He whirled to face the source, spotting a small purple haired Black Eagle girl who seemed rather devastated to have missed, her mouth open in horror. 

“Sorry for the tackle, but she was about to shoot all three of those arrows at once, and I’ve seen that girl shoot a bullseye from on top of a tower on the other side of the monastery. Anyways, go get your key, I’ll take care of her.” She got off of Lorenz and took off in the direction of the Black Eagle archer with startling speed.

“Oh nooooo don’t get me don’t get me _ aahh _!” He heard the Black Eagle girl screech as she too took off with speed he wouldn’t have anticipated into the cover of the trees. 

Standing and quickly brushing off his uniform, he snatched the golden key from the chest and ran back to his horse. He swiftly mounted and made after where he’d seen the girls disappear to.

More cautious of flying arrows this time, Lorenz had his lance raised in anticipation when the brush nearby rustled and Bylia emerged. 

“Don’t worry, I got her.” He breathed out a sigh of relief. “Did you get the key?”

“Why, of course I did.” He said, puffing out his chest proudly. Did she think he, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester could not obtain a simple key? “I could not pass up such an opportunity and it stood to reason that any potential obstacles were gone for the moment.”

Bylia lifted an eyebrow that had him ready to further defend his actions, but she just shrugged. “Good job. Let’s go back.”

Lorenz’ mouth fell open for a moment. Was she not going to berate him for leaving the group and acting on his own? “Have you no complaints?”

“Huh? Oh, you mean that you went off? No, I think I get it.”

“Are you saying that you understand me?” He squinted at her suspiciously. 

“...Well, as you probably noticed I don’t know _ that _ much about the political details of Fodlan, but even I know that Gloucester is a big name to live up to.” 

He watched her scan the forest, flipping her messy blue bangs out of her face, constantly vigilant. It was odd, he hadn’t expected her to guess his need to live up to his father’s expectations.

“Anyways, we should get back before someone comes looking for your key there and finds it missing.” She said, shifting uncomfortably. He shook himself out of his reverie.

“Of course, my apologies.” Lorenz held a hand out to her. “We shall make more haste aboard my steed.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks.” She seemed surprised but obligingly took his offered hand and swung herself up behind him in the saddle. He resisted the urge to blush as she took a grip of his waist for balance, and kneed his steed into motion. 

“Ya!”

\---

“I’ll keep it simple!” Claude heard Leonie yell from where she was engaged in fierce battle with Dimitri, sweeping her lance down in a punishing blow. He heard Dimitri grunt at the blow and flicker before the pink teleportation magic triggered as his last strike was hit. 

“He~y look at you!” He praised her, dodging Ashe’s arrow with a back somersault, firing back in one smooth motion.

“My father taught you that move, didn’t he?” Byleth remarked to his left, deflecting a wooden axe thrown at him off his sword. “Predictable.” He murmured in regard to the axe.

“I’d call that a win.” Leonie said with a twirl of her lance. “I’m so glad you noticed. I bet I can do that move better than you can.”

Claude rolled his eyes at Leonie’s incessant need to challenge the Eisner siblings for… having Jeralt as their father rights? But Byleth just barked out a loud laugh. “Yeah I bet you would, I’m no good with a lance. Swords are so much better. Allow me to demonstrate!”

Byleth charged towards Annette and moved so fast Claude would have missed it had he blinked. He heard an arcing cry and then watched the pink teleportation magic envelop her.

“Should I have held back?” He asked, propping the sword up on his shoulder. Claude was happy to see his professor seemed to be enjoying himself - no doubt due to their success so far. He was going to congratulate him, but tensed as someone approached from within the forest, drawing his arrow.

“Oh good, you two are back.” Byleth remained relaxed beside him and as the horse emerged from the forest he saw Lorenz had deemed to return to them at last.

...With Bylia riding behind him? Claude blinked. Were they that good of friends before? He didn’t think so.

“We’re back, and look what _ we _ have.” Bylia said, a wide grin on her face. “Show him, Lorenz.”

The smug young man retrieved a golden key from his pocket holding it up for Byleth to see. He was quite proud of himself for someone who had run off, Claude noted dryly. 

“Alright, fine, I’ll let you off the hook for breaking formation since you’re back with full strikes and a golden key.” Byleth was trying to sound stern, but the excitement in his voice was obvious. 

Lorenz repocketed the key, and rejoined his spot in the group. 

“I’ll be getting off now, thanks for the ride.” Bylia said, moving to dismount.

“Oh, do allow me, my lady.” Lorenz swung off his horse and held out a hand to help her dismount. 

Bylia made a face and leaped off the horse herself with a thump. “Don’t you have to have a noble house to be called a ‘Lady?”

Was she _ teasing _ him? Just what exactly had happened in that forest?

“Oh... yes indeed, that is true. My apologies, I did not mean to offend.” 

Bylia glared at him for another second before breaking face and laughing, holding up a hand. “I’m just messing with you, don’t get your fancy embroidered leggings in a bunch. But I’ll let you give me a high five.”

In any other situation, Claude would be fully enjoying the awkwardness as Lorenz endured something as ‘low class and unrefined’ as giving a high five, simply for the purpose of not leaving Bylia hanging. But in this situation… it was probably just aggravating because the two seemed to be well on their way to becoming friends despite Lorenz’ mess of a personality, whereas Claude had been trying to befriend her unsuccessfully with much more tact than Lorenz could ever possess. 

“Boy do I ever love to see my Golden Deer getting along well, but shouldn’t we moving on to the next stage of the plan by now?” He asked.

“Right, Golden Deer let’s move out. Now is the fun part, where we get to join in on the action now that they’ve been softened up nice and good for us.” Byleth raised his sword to point forward. “Let’s get that victory!”

Claude had to admit it. Byleth was a tactical genius on par with him - no, if he was being honest, he was even better than he was. He was almost mad about it considering this was Byleth’s first time actually leading. Almost. His Teach was on their side, and his power was their power now so this was just another indication that fate was with him. 

They’d taken out the remaining Blue Lions and only Edelgard and Hubert were left on the Black Eagles team, who were both mano a mano with Byleth and - doing much better than she’d ever admit - Hilda. As he thought that, Hilda finished him off mid desperate cry to protect “Lady Edelgard” and huffed about getting sweaty. 

He had to give it to Edelgard, she was impressive. She had been neck and neck with Byleth for a minute now, but he could see her tiring against Byleth’s endless strength. However, every time he thought she would slow and tire, he saw her grit her teeth and just swing her wooden axe harder. 

None of them could really help him without hindering him or getting caught in the tussle, so intense was their fight. Yeesh, it was just a mock battle. Edelgard must really hate losing.

He panicked, noticing her driving Byleth to step back into the river that flowed behind him, but before he could call out a warning, Byleth dropped and spinned, kicking water up into Edelgard’s face. She cried out in surprise and he closed in, finishing the job in the moment of distraction. The last thing he saw on her face was a very bitter face of shocked defeat at having lost.

She disappeared in a flash of pink.

Byleth turned to face them, panting heavily but still managed a victorious twirl of his sword, a wide grin on his face.

Claude laughed. “All right, go Teach! We won! Fear the Deer!”

Their team cheered and dropped their weapons, running around and jumping and fist bumping each other. 

In the spirit of his victory, Claude turned to the person closest to him and lifted them up in a big hug. They squeezed him back for a moment in glee, but then went stiff.

Bylia stared back at him like a deer in headlights, the victorious smile frozen on her face.

“Ah!” Claude dropped her like a hot potato.

He was about to apologize - he wasn’t sure why, it’s not like he did anything wrong and he certainly wouldn’t have apologized to any of the _ rest _of the people on his team for doing so - but he didn’t get a chance.

A loud _ vooooooooo _ sounded in the air and suddenly the world went pink as the whole team was beamed out of the field. 

They were met with the sight of the other professors and the Black Eagles and Blue Lions. Jeralt stood on top of a rock and announced the results. Bylia had somehow managed to vanish from his side already, so Claude gave up on amending that awkward situation.

“The winner of this mock battle is… the Golden Deer!”

He was proud of his Golden Deer for how, on cue, they all cheered “Fear the Deer!” They were learning well.

“As previously stated, the winners will be given access to the Seiros Sauna for the night as a reward. Now, on to the golden key results. Blue Lions: zero keys. Black Eagles: one key. Golden Deer: two keys.”

There was nothing like the sweet, sweet satisfaction of the bitter look on Edelgard’s face. He would’ve enjoyed Dimitri’s expression but it was so full of disappointment that he couldn’t revel in his defeat as much - Dimitri always fought so honorably. Claude smirked. That would be his downfall.

After turning in their mock battle equipment, everyone headed back up the hill towards the monastery with varying levels of enthusiasm, the sun dipping low on the horizon painting long streaks behind them. The long shadow that stretched out from behind Byleth made him look… like a hero, Claude thought. Returning from an epic battle. 

It was a sight Claude hoped to see again, several times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lorenz could get it if not for that hair. He could DEFINITELY get it post time skip. Claude is like um I kNOW you aren't trying to pull up on my girl bro. BRO. Also Byleth is a badass.
> 
> Sorry for delay, I'm currently on a long road trip back to college and yesterday I was on a plane and... 9 hour layovers... etc.


	8. Sauna Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deer gang plays Never Have I Ever in the Seiros Sauna. Things go from tame to very, very improper in a short period of time, thanks to these teens being both gremlins and also lowkey horny on main.

Bylia knew she should be happy that they won. And she was! Or had been, for a moment at least. Happy enough to smile at and let Claude hug her. She thought she had seen him smile genuinely for the first time, and in the circle of his tight embrace, she’d felt her pulse skip a little. That little happy feeling had vanished pretty quickly when he’d realized it was her and immediately dropped her like a sack of hot potatoes. As if she needed more of a reminder that he just wanted her for her brother.

Regardless, the awkward moment with Claude hadn’t lasted long. Dad was finally back after being away for almost a week, leaving her and Byleth to the Seiros church dogs. And, of course, she’d missed him. She’d made a beeline for him right away, weaving through her cheering comrades with relative difficulty due to several of them raising their arms up to their head to make the secret sign of the Golden Deer. That was a lot of elbows to avoid.

“Dad!” She called out, bounding towards him now that the path was clear. 

Jeralt turned at her voice and dropped the equipment to catch her as she barrelled into him.

“Haha, didya miss me, kid?” He laughed as he ruffled her hair - her already messy ponytail was done for anyways so she didn’t care. “Haven’t even been here a week and you two are already thrashing the poor other house kids, eh? Congrats on winning the battle!”

Bylia buried her face in her dad’s chest and squeezed him in a hug before leaning back. “I couldn’t let them have an excuse to tarnish the great name of _ Jeralt the BladeBreaker _.”

“Oh stop, I haven’t been called that in ages!” He protested, trying to shrug it off. They began to follow the group walking back to the monastery. “The only people who even seriously called me that are that fool Alois and-”

“Leonie Pinelli?” Bylia crossed her arms and fixed him with a look. Her dad looked surprised.

“How do you know that name?”

“She’s a student here at the academy, Dad. Telling everybody that she’s your one and only apprentice is her favorite thing to do. You never told us you took an apprentice.”

“Well _ that _would be because I didn’t, kid.” He laughed. “But it’s true that I did train her and several others at Arsu village.” Her dad stroked his beard thoughtfully. “She did follow me around quite a bit now that I think about it, but that was normal considering the circumstances. They were in a bad way, and needed to be able to defend themselves. It’s better for me to not go into details.”

“I never told the two of you because… well, it’s not a pretty story. Not something I’d want a kid to hear, anyways. I might be a mercenary, but I’m still your dad.”

“Aren’t you technically a Knight of Seiros now?” Bylia knew he didn’t want to talk about it, but it was way past time to. She was more than ready to get out of here and the only way they could do that was if her dad confessed how Rhea was blackmailing him.

Jeralt grimaced. “I know I told you two not to trust Rhea, kid, but I’m afraid we will have to stay here and provide our services for now. Besides, the officer’s academy can do a much better job teaching you about this world than my attempts at home schooling ever could.” Oh no, she was _ not _ about to take that attempt at deflection.

“Come on, Dad! I know she has something on you. Just tell me what it is and maybe I can help.”

He just shook his head, the look in his eyes the same as whenever someone brought up things he refused to talk about, like their mother, or their birth, or why Bylia didn’t have a heartbeat. 

“Please?” Bylia had been concerned before but now nerves clenched in the pit of her stomach. Whatever Rhea had on her dad must be much, much worse than she had imagined if it could make him look like that.

He refused to meet her eyes, not responding. Her heart sank.

“Why?” Why couldn’t he at least tell her something? Or try to explain?

They walked in a stiff, congested silence broken only by the intermittent laughter of the group from ahead. She waited, but Dad didn’t say a word, just looked stoically out at the approaching monastery. Her chest stung and she felt her throat clog up. 

“Fine, I get it. You don’t trust me.” She bit out, and ran off, swallowing back the emotion that swelled at her throat furiously. She refused to cry in front of these entitled kids.

“Wait, Bylia!” Ignoring her dad’s protests, she just ran faster, bumping rudely into a student and not bothering to stop and apologize. 

She was going to find out what he was hiding from her whether he wanted her to or not. Rhea might be the archbishop, but she was a fool if she thought she could mess with _ her _ family and get away with it.

\---

“I’ve never been in a noble’s sauna before, so I guess I wouldn’t know, but… this is huge. Right?” Byleth stepped through the large doors, surveying the room that met him. This was definitely bigger than any sauna he’d ever been in.

Off to one side, there was a large wooden room with several tiers of wooden benches. Next to it was what looked like a bathing pool, except made out of stone and lined with symbols that he recognized from Bylia’s ancient language studies homework to be the crest symbol of Seiros. It appeared to be warm from the slight steam that wafted above the ripples in the pool. Several towels were stacked on a ledge next to a privacy screen made out of a lattice of metal and green cloth instead of the typical wood and paper.

“Uh, that would be a yes. This is definitely larger than normal. I’m… suddenly getting a desire to embrace my faith and become a high ranking official for the Church of Seiros.” Claude said from behind him as he stepped into the room.

“Ooh, ooh, let me see!” Hilda pushed past him and bounded into the room, taking in the view with wide eyes. “Oh just wait until everybody else hears about this! I wonder what they _ do _in here?”

“That looks like Saint Seiros.” Ignatz said, pointing up towards the top of the tower where a single stained-glass window allowed moonlight to filter into the room from above. “It doesn’t look like she’s in battle though, how odd. I wonder what scene it’s depicting.”

“Who cares about all that history stuff? I can’t wait to relax my muscles in this sauna, they’re all cramped from the battle earlier. I call changing first!” Raphael bounded towards the privacy screen, almost tipping over the stack of towels as he yanked the top one off the pile and ducked behind the screen to change.

“Yeah, we’re here to have fun, not study!” Hilda enthused, casually looping her arm around Marianne who was trying to find the best position to be out of everyone’s way. “We’re going next.” She announced matter-of-factly.

“We’ve never been allowed in here before and this place looks ancient, is it really that odd for me to observe the historical and aesthetic value this clearly sacred place has to offer?” Ignatz complained, pushing his eyebrows up on his nose with a frown.

“Uh-uhm, I… I think it’s pretty too.” Marianne stammered.

“Hmmm. I dunno, no matter what I see Saint Seiros in, she always looks kinda scary, like my brother does when a guy hits on me.” Hilda mused. Raphael came out from behind the privacy screen wrapped in a towel and dropped his clothes in a heap on the floor. Hilda tugged Marianne forward. “Our turn!”

The others struck up a conversation about the various depictions of Saint Seiros while they took turns changing. Byleth noticed that Bylia didn’t join in. She’d been silent since earlier when she’d rejoined the group. His sister wasn’t a big socializer but she was usually more talkative than this. He wasn’t sure what could have happened in between winning the battle and now, but he hoped that having a fun time in the sauna with the rest of the Golden Deer would cheer her up a little.

Oh, maybe she was worried about what happened the last time they were at a sauna happening again. Byleth resolutely clenched his fist - if that was the case there was no need for her to worry, he’d make sure that nobody tripped and fell on her or anything else that would cause her towel to fall.

He, Claude, and Bylia were the last to change. 

“Ladies first.” Claude said with a sweep of his arm.

“...” Bylia barely spared him a glance and went behind the screen. 

\---

“I think she’s just in a bad mood.” Byleth said at Claude’s questioning expression at his sister’s moody display. “There was an accident last time we were in a sauna.”

Claude’s eyebrows raised. “Oh?”

“Lost her towel. She’s not embarrassed about her chest or anything but she definitely wasn’t planning on baring it, as I’m sure you can no doubt imagine.”

Claude laughed, boy could he imagine! Lucky bastards who had gotten to see such a thing. “That does sound rather traumatizing. Well, good to know it’s not me!” Not this time, anyways.

Bylia finished changing and came out, adding her clothes to the pile. After a moment she took off her ring and placed it next to Hilda’s bracelet, Lysithea’s earrings, and Lorenz’ ring. Then padded over to the sauna room, joining the others.

Claude went next, wrapping the surprisingly fluffy towel around his waist. Then he waited outside the changing screen for Byleth.

Byleth soon came out, and to Claude’s great intrigue, deposited his clothes on the floor and placed a chain with a glowing gemstone pendant next to the girl’s accessories. It looked just like Bylia’s ring, except that it was green instead of blue. 

“Hey Teach, what’s with the bling?”

He could’ve sworn Byleth blushed. “Oh that? My father gave it to me. It helps me sleep. I… get nightmares often.”

Studying the jewelry, Claude noticed that the purple gem in the center of Lorenz’ ring had a similar glow.

“What’s it made out of? Some kind of magic, I’m guessing.”

Byleth nodded. “Yeah, I’m not exactly sure how my father got it, they’re blood magic stones. They’re pretty expensive because you can imbue them with much more advanced magic than most other conduit stones. They have a drop of saint blood in them or something, so they are really rare.”

“Wow, I didn’t realize mercenary life paid so well.”

“It doesn’t.” Byleth said with a snort. “My father said a close friend gave it to him, so I always assumed they were some rich noble or something.”

“That’s the world for ya Teach, connections are everything.” Claude said. “So what does Bylia’s do?”

Byleth grimaced: “It works like mine but it’s for something else. It’s kind of private. If you want, you can ask her, but if she tells you don’t go around spreading what you hear.”

“Oh, come on, really, would _ I _ do such a thing? My lips are sealed, Teach.” He scratched the back of his head. “Although, I somehow get the feeling I wouldn’t get the chance to anyways. Ugh, look at us, talking like intellectuals when we are supposed to be being irresponsible and _ enjoying _ ourselves!” He plowed on, not waiting to hear Byleth’s response to that. “We have a victory to celebrate, let’s get this party started!” He bounded into the sauna room and plopped onto a free spot on the first tier of the wooden benches.

Byleth came in and closed the door behind him.

“Now that you’re all here we can finally start playing truth or dare!” Hilda exclaimed with a happy clap of her hands. Raphael poured more water on the hot stones and Claude took a deep breath of the warm steam, letting his muscles relax after the action of the day. 

“I’m in.” He said with a grin. Truth or dare was a great way to get people to overshare.

“Hmph. I do hope nobody attempts to ask or dare anything improper.” Lorenz crossed his arms across his rather pale chest. Always with the attempts to contradict anything Claude said, as usual. 

“Aw, come on Lorenz, we’re all friends here, no need for the pomp. We goin’ clockwise? Who’s going first?”

Everybody looked at their professor. 

“Wha- me?” Byleth laughed nervously. “Come on, guys, you know my classroom discipline isn’t anything personal. I’m just doing my job as a professor!”

“You scared of what we’ll dare you to do, Teach?” Claude grinned, baiting him.

“Hell yes.” Byleth said. “I’m not trying to lose my job, I just got it! Let’s play uhh, Never Have I Ever instead.”

“Oh I love that game!” Leonie said, perking up. “I always win.”

Hilda just shrugged. “Alright, but no lame questions.”

Everyone held up ten fingers and looked at Byleth again to start. Teach rolled his eyes but acquiesced. 

“Alright fine. Never have I ever… broken a bone.”

Leonie, Claude, Bylia, and Raphael put a finger down.

“You’ve really never broken a bone, Professor?” Lysithea asked skeptically.

“Never.” Byleth said. “Unless breaking someone else’s counts. I guess I’m lucky since it’s not like I’m especially careful not to.” He said with a sheepish laugh. “You never broke a bone, Hilda?”

“Me? Of course not Professor, I keep telling you, I’m a dainty flower! I let others better suited to the task do the heavy lifting and dangerous things.” Hilda waved her hand at the idea.

“Shoulda known.” Byleth tsked and shook his head. “We’re gonna have to work on that, Hilda!”

Hilda pouted and whispered to Marianne, who was next in order. Marianne blushed a very dark shade of red.

“Hilda! I- I can’t ask that!”

She whispered something else in Marianne’s ear. Marianne fidgeted and very, very quietly said.

“N-Never have I ever h-h-ad… intercourse.”

That went from zero to a hundred quick. 

Everyone stared at each other and slowly, Leonie, Raphael, Claude - he was no liar! - and of course, Hilda, put down a finger.

“This is incredibly inappropriate!” Lorenz protested. Claude thought it was funny how he waited to see if the others were virgins first before complaining. He couldn’t help but tease him.

“It’s alright Lorenz, you’ll have your day sometime too. _ Might _ wanna rethink your haircut though.”

Lorenz gasped. “This is the traditional Gloucester family style that _ all _ heirs wear.” He self-consciously patted his hair down, smoothing it out. “And the height of fashion in the noble circles of the Alliance elite, I’ll have you know.”

Claude snorted. “Yeah, maybe twenty years ago.” He mumbled under his breath.

“W-Well regardless _ I _, like the Professor, am a gentleman, and shall wait to experience such intimacy until after marriage, as is proper.”

Bylia made a noise and Claude glanced over to see her quickly hide a grin. Looks like the festivities were cracking her icy mood, good. It would be great if she opened up a bit. She whispered something to Teach that he couldn’t make out but he thought he heard the words “mystical” and “twelve year old.” Whatever she said earned her an elbow to the ribs that had her snickering.

Byleth cleared his throat. “Yes, as Lorenz pointed out, it’s important to be a gentleman.”

He was up next. What should he ask? What did he want to know from everybody? Their morale, he supposed, and what their fears and limitations were. The sooner he knew them, the sooner he could help them overcome them and solidify them into a stalwart ally.

But this was a party. How about interpersonal connections?

“Never have I ever had beef with someone at the Academy.”

Bylia, Lorenz, Leonie, and Hilda put down a finger. Interesting.

Nobody seemed interested in elaborating who, so Claude made a note to try and find out who each one didn’t like. Hopefully they were with other house students and not interhouse arguments.

“It’s my turn now.” Hilda announced, clearly tired of waiting for her moment. Claude noted in interest that her gaze zeroed in on Bylia. This would be good.

“Never have I ever… had a cup size bigger than my own.”

Bylia turned a very charming shade of red and quickly crossed her arms over her chest. It was the first time Claude had seen her blush hard enough for her pale cheeks to be completely red… coupled with her movement just made it worse, pushing her cleavage up further out of her towel. The heat and water vapor in the sauna cast her usually pale skin in a rosy color with a sheen of moisture across her skin. Claude swallowed thickly.

“How is that even a fair question when it only targets one person?” Even asking as irritatedly as Byleth was, it was pretty funny how he too acknowledged his sister’s academy-wide standing of having the largest chest.

“Hmm, fine, I’ll let you keep a finger... _ if _ you tell us what you eat to get those, Bylia.”

“I don’t do anything special. It’s just genetics.” Bylia mumbled. Claude figured he would be pretty embarrassed too if he was a girl and everybody was staring at and evaluating the size of _ his _ chest.

“Booo.” Hilda complained. “Just genetics? I don’t believe it.”

“I’ll just put a finger down so, can we _ please _ move on?”

“Aw, you’re no fun. Fine, keep the secret methods all to yourself.”

It was Ignatz’s turn.

“Uh, okay let me think. ...Never have I ever drank alcohol?”

Everybody except Lysithea put down a finger.

“Wh-what, seriously guys? We’re all underage!”

“When offered a glass of finely aged vintage wine, it is only polite to accept.” Lorenz stated, as if covering his bases to not be confused with something as improper as drinking for fun.

Claude thought he would very much like the see the day where a drunk off his ass Lorenz lost his propriety. 

“Is it my turn?” Lysithea asked. 

“Yep, hit us with your best shot.” He encouraged.

Lysithea thought for a moment. “Never have I ever stolen something.”

Leonie, Claude, Byleth, and Bylia put down a finger.

“The professor and his sister I understand, due to their previous occupation of work, but just what excuse do you have for stealing, Claude?” Lorenz asked him accusatively. 

“Hey, you know me!” Claude put his hands up in the air innocently. “Just a few schemes here and there that required temporarily redistributing some things. I’m no thief.”

Lorenz didn’t seem convinced. Claude hoped he hadn’t somehow saw him stealing the forbidden library books Seteth “confiscated” to read in his room. He always made sure to lock his door but it’s not like he had them well hidden. Some way or another they always ended up dispersed all over his room despite his efforts. He just got distracted sometimes.

“So what did you steal Leonie?” Hilda said conspiratorially. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.” The usually chipper ginger said in a clipped tone. Claude knew there had been a… less than ideal situation in her village some time ago with a civil upheaval against the reigning Lord. He guessed it had to do with that, considering how overly frugal Leonie was, and her continuous insistence on sending back home any money that she made. He was pretty sure he’d even caught her trying to make off with some of the kitchen supplies once. 

“Oh shoot, I’m so sorry!” Hilda didn’t look like she’d been anticipating that answer. 

Leonie just shrugged and blew a piece of orange hair out of her face from the corner of her mouth. “Somebody add some more water, will ya?”

“Oh, I’ll do it!” Raphael exclaimed and scrambled up to pour some more water over the rocks.

“Ahem.” Lorenz cleared his throat. “I believe it is my turn, is it not?”

Once he was sure he had the spotlight, he proudly puffed out his chest and said, “Never have I ever had an indecent fantasy about anybody in this room.”

“Bull. Shit.” Leonie wasn’t buying it for a single second.

Claude almost choked on his own saliva. “Yeaaah, I’m afraid I’m gonna have to call your bluff there, oh noble gentleman.”

“I do hope you aren’t insinuating that I’ve considered anything remotely untoward regarding the fair ladies of our house. That would be a large accusation indeed.”

“Oh no, not the famous Gloucester glare!”

“I have to say I agree with Leonie and Claude on this one.” Byleth folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at Lorenz. “Considering the discussions we’ve already had to have regarding propositioning the girls.”

Lorenz spluttered. “For their hand in _ marriage _ only! There is nothing wrong with looking for a suitable candidate to be my wife and support House Gloucester by fulfilling our noble duties and looking after the common folk together as a team.”

“...If you say so, Lorenz.” 

“I’ve tolerated enough of this nonsense. I have nothing more to say.” Lorenz raised his nose stubbornly.

“Is nobody gonna put a finger down? Cause… that means Lorenz isn’t the _ only _liar in here.” Hilda accused. 

“Talking about yourself, Hilda?” Byleth teased. 

“Who, an innocent, dainty flower such as me? My daydreams aren’t full of such… _ strenuous _ activities.”

“Not that again. Nobody actually believes all that stuff you make up about your so-called daintiness.” Leonie raised an arm and flexed her bicep, ever the show-off even when not talking about herself. “We all know you’re packing plenty of firepower.”

The group thought of the ridiculously large axe Hilda used, the height of it comically dwarfing the short young woman, and simultaneously laughed. 

“Ha-ha. What about _ you _ Claude?” Hilda said to redirect the attention off of herself, and of course, onto him. “You sure it’s just gold and not… oh, say, _ blue _ in your daydreams?”

“My dear Hilda, you know the only thing in _ my _ head is schemes.” Claude grinned effortlessly, refusing to take the bait. She was either insinuating he was hot for Dimitri, Teach, or Bylia. All three were problematic assumptions if taken seriously, and he wasn’t about to fall into _ that _ trap and make things that much harder for himself.

That girl was frighteningly perceptive if she’d caught on to Claude’s attempts to approach either of the Eisner siblings. Such was the case with a gossipmonger such as herself he guessed. He’d have to be more careful around her in the future.

“Besides, if anybody’s the one having inappropriate daydreams, it’s Ignatz over here contemplating how best to worship the Goddess.”

“A-Am not! I mean, o-of course she’d be a beautiful woman but I would never disrespect such a holy and b-beautiful lady.” Ignatz exclaimed, rocketing to his feet. “A-and Lorenz said in this class!”

“Yeah, I think I’d notice if the Goddess herself were in this class.” Leonie said dryly. 

Claude noticed Teach and Bylia give each other an odd look, like they knew a secret. A funny one, by the way Teach’s eyes sparkled in mirth and he could’ve sworn he saw Bylia’s mouth twitch.

“You two making fun of the Goddess through twin telepathy or something? Making jokes about the Goddess is _ technically _ blasphemy, you know. I gotta say I didn’t believe it was an actual thing but I’m pretty sure I just saw you guys beam your thoughts into each others heads without saying a word.” Claude wasn’t about to pass up on a chance to find out how to make Bylia laugh, considering how much worse his approaching attempts had been with her than her brother.

The twins just looked at each other again, Bylia biting her lip in vain to stop the mischievous grin from spreading on her face.

“What if the Goddess was _ actually _-”

“Nothing.” Byleth hurriedly spoke over her but he could see he was holding back amusement as well. “You’re just imagining it Claude, such a thing doesn’t exist.”

“Is _ anyone _ going to put down a finger? This is crucial information that I have a need to know!” Hilda protested, clearly interested on getting all the inter-crushing dirt on everyone in the Golden Deer.

When nobody made a move to, Marianne softly suggested “I-I’ll put one down if you want, Hilda. Unless that would be a bother… o-or if you didn’t want it from me, or-”

“That’s my girl, _ tsk _ see? I can always count on Marianne to have my back. Unlike you _ liars _.” Hilda mock grieved, leaning dramatically backwards onto Marianne’s lap with a hand to her forehead.

Claude was a little shocked and intrigued to see that despite appearing distressed as he had expected, Marianne actually looked happy. Maybe she did have a desire to be helpful to others that was at war with her self-deprecating nature. And well, who could truly feel down with a half-naked girl in their lap? Not like that was the case for them, though. 

Claude squinted. ...Unless?

“So I’m guessing it’s my turn right?” Leonie said, and continued without waiting for an answer. “Never have I ever thrown food away even if I didn’t like it or wasn’t hungry.”

Raphael’s horrified gasp as everyone except him and Byleth put down a finger was an expectedly wholesome reaction.

“Throw away perfectly good food? Aww come on guys, you can’t waste food like that. Just bring it to me if you don’t want it.” He said passionately, ending with a grin. 

“Or me.” Byleth fist bumped Raphael. “This is why all of you aren’t strong and tough like us.”

Bylia rolled her eyes. 

“Wasted food is wasted money.” Leonie nodded in approval. “I’m glad you understand, Professor. I bet Captain Jeralt taught you that.”

Bylia rolled her eyes again, harder. Claude just propped his chin in his hand and watched. 

“‘_ Captain Jeralt _’ fed us a lot of fish, and while I love fish, sometimes a woman wants some spice in her life.Variety never hurt anybody.” Bylia said, Leonie bristling at her tone when she mimicked how she said ‘Captain Jeralt.’ Looks like Bylia was a picky eater and thought Leonie could die mad about it - filing that info away for later food bribe use.

“The Captain shouldn’t have spoiled you. If I was his daughter, I would have gladly and gratefully eaten anything he caught for me.”

Oh boy, here we go.

Bylia smiled sweetly. “Yeah maybe you would have. But you’re not.”

Hilda erupted into delighted nervous giggles at the start of what could be a juicy catfight. “Ooooh!”

“What?!? I can’t believe you s-”

“Woahhh, okay ladies, how about we let Raphael have his turn now?” Byleth intervened, his expression paling at the dark expression on his sister’s face. He looked like he was begging her with his eyes to stand down.

“Whatever.” Leonie huffed. Bylia said nothing but reluctantly lowered her glare to look absently at something else.

Too bad. Things were about to get interesting. He wouldn’t have minded watching two towel-clad girls duke it out. What was a party without some fun memories?

“Never have I ever uhhh,” Raphael scratched his head thoughtfully. “Had a pet?”

Byleth and Bylia looked at each other. “Do mounts count?”

“Nah.”

Lorenz, Leonie, Hilda, and himself put down a finger. 

“Since we were on the move pretty regularly with the Green Snakes we never had a pet growing up. That, and I’m pretty sure father had his hands full enough being a single parent to twins.” Byleth said with a sheepish smile. “I’ve always wanted to have a dog though. A big one. A war dog.”

“Green Snakes?” Lysithea asked. 

“Why a war dog?” Raphael asked. “If I could afford to take care of one I’d get a big fluffy nice one.”

“Green Snakes was the name of our mercenary company. And a war dog would be so cool by my side, like a hero in a novel.”

“That explains why you use a sword instead of a spear like Captain Jeralt.” Leonie mused.

“That’s my brother for you, wants to be an action novel hero when he grows up.” Bylia teased him with a dry grin.

“War dogs are very honorable companions, fit for a noble or someone of your brother’s esteemed status.” Lorenz said in approval. “My family has several war mastiffs and bull danes. Such elegant beasts. They protect the grounds well when we aren’t taking them out… if a bit eager to prove themselves. Though, being hunting dogs as well, at least we can occasionally use whatever they unexpectedly present us with.”

“Aww, that is so cute! Holst got our beagle Mari when he was eight, so I was three when I started growing up with a puppy around.”

Claude would’ve shared about his pet, but his albino wyvern Josie was kind of a secret considering he was trying to keep his origins ambiguous. They didn’t have as many wyverns in Fodlan, so while there were wyvern riders, there weren’t many that were domesticated or that had been with their owners from birth, to his understanding.

“You’re up before we come back full circle Bylia.” He said with a stretch, relaxing the muscles of his arms and back. 

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Never have I ever done normal everyday tasks upside down.”

“Ouch, aiming straight for me, huh?” Claude put a finger down reluctantly, but truthfully he was pretty happy about it. He’d at least been able to catch her attention without trying in one way. “I’ll have you know I do my best scheming with the increased blood flow to the brain.”

The game continued until only Ignatz and Lysithea were left - most people being taken out simultaneously by Hilda’s questionable “never have I ever had an orgasm” which nobody believed her, but also nobody dared voice that disbelief in case it really was true. 

By then it was simple enough for Lysithea to end it with a “never have I ever painted” insisting that it was too much of a waste of time for someone like her, and claim her victory. Not that Hilda ever had a chance at winning, but she thoroughly got Lysithea back by relentlessly telling ghost story after ghost story, which had Lysithea trembling and clinging to Raphael by the end of it. Claude got a whole mouthful when he suggested she was scared, her vehemently correcting him that she was just ‘cold.’ Didn’t seem likely in the steamy hot sauna. Raphael helped her save face by putting his arm around the frightened girl and rhythmically patting her arm in an easy motion for “warming up her muscles” that reminded him that Raph had a younger sister he deeply cared for. 

Eventually it got too late to continue and they sleepily left the sauna in a reluctant trickle. Claude was hanging back, enjoying watching his Golden Deer in their state of much increased camaraderie as they all left. Byleth stretched as he stood and then strode out of the room, leaving only him and Bylia. Bylia was fiddling with the end of her towel, making sure it was secure to get up and move around in, he figured, when it happened.

“I’d offer help instead of just sitting here but towels not being in my standard wardrobe of choice unfortunately means I’d just be useless.”

Bylia stopped fiddling with her towel and paused. “That would be a pretty odd choice if it were.” She said, voice light with genuine levity.

What’s this? Finally some progress? Score one for Claude! Soon both badass twins would be on his side. 

She continued talking but Claude didn’t have a chance to process what she was saying. That was because her foot caught on one of the smooth pieces of timber and with an undignified squeak she fell right on top of him.

“Woah there!” He exclaimed, automatically catching her from rolling off to land painfully on the floor by tightening his arms around here. “Yeah so there’s a raised spot right there you gotta watch out for, sorry I didn’t think to mention… it?”

He trailed off. Bylia was looking at him with an expression he’d never seen before, her eyes unfocused. Or rather, she was looking at his lips. 

Suddenly the warmth of the sauna was nothing compared to the flash of heat that spread through his entire body. Claude swallowed dryly, hyper-aware of the thin strip of towel that separated his bare chest from hers. Her large breasts pressed against him softly - handy for cushioning a fall, the ever witty part of his brain that was always ready to provide him with dialogue piped up - and he couldn’t help but alternate staring between her impressive cleavage where it touched him and her dazed face. 

She was stunning up close - hair frizzed by the humidity, little wisps of blue curling by her face. Rosy cheeks, half-lidded eyes, and pink lips parted in frozen surprise. He moved forward as if in a trance, overtaken by the sudden overwhelming desire to-

Bylia made a panicked noise and scrambled off of him, stumbling back several steps before clutching her towel to her chest and all but running out of the sauna room. Claude just stared after her for several seconds, processing what had just happened.

Ah, the part of his brain that allowed coherent thinking was back now. It said, _ well, that was awkward _ . _ Again _.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This chapter took a bit longer because its... really long lmao, and also because I was moving in to my apartment and then school started today. So my rate of release is gonna be a liiiitttle bit slower because I'm... taking a shit ton of classes this semester #seniorlife #tryinagraduateandLEAVE but never fear, Golden Deer are always here and I'm pretty sure I'll never go above a whole week before releasing a chapter.
> 
> Anyways, in this chapter:  
Byleth still has his v card because well, hes a gentleman and also he's got a little girl living inside his head that he feels responsible to not expose her to things she shouldn't be watching  
Raphael is best older bro, to everyone  
Ignatz x Goddess 5ever oh wait cant ship him with a mystical 12 (thousand) year old  
Lorenz has never been horny in his life, ever (lies)  
Byleth wants to be The Very Best hero and Ignatz is eventually gonna paint him as such  
Claude and Bylia are horny on main and also dan bylie your bobbies.
> 
> Enjoy. Also leave in the comments any never have I ever questions you think they had in there before people ran out of lives. c:


	9. Chased

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Determined to discover and destroy the reason for Jeralt's inability to leave Garreg Mach, Bylia risks a foray into Rhea's own private bedchambers for answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pointy-eared dragon people race has a great sense of smell, but at least in Seteth's case, not as many braincells because he takes the smell of Agarthan magic (aka the infusing of Saint blood aka Zanado dragon ppl's blood into blood magic rings which while RARE, are common enough among the wealthy nobles such as Lorenz, to have one) from Bylia's ring to mean she's part of twsitd and goes feral.

After several days of what could only be described as spying on the archbishop, Bylia had discovered that every night before Rhea went to bed, she visited the Holy Tomb for about an hour. Knowing the place was booby-trapped, Bylia hadn’t risked following her inside, so while obviously curious to know what the creepy woman was up to in there, she decided this would be the perfect time to search Rhea’s private bedchambers for any secrets that could explain why her father was acting like a lap dog for her.

Monday night was her choice as a result, knowing that it was less likely for her to have different plans - and for any tired start of the week students to be out wandering the halls and see anything they shouldn’t see.

Hiding in the shadowed alcove of a large stone pillar Bylia watched silently as Rhea stepped out of her chambers and shut the door behind her. She waited until the clack of the woman’s shoes had completely faded before cautiously ducking out and sidling over to the door.

_ Locked _. Well, it would have been too much to ask for Rhea to forget to lock it this one night, so she had come prepared for this. Plucking a couple black bobby pins from her long blue locks and straightening out the pliant strips of metal, she knelt in front of the door and made like she had been taught in her Subterfuge class, moving slowly as she pushed up the pins. It took a bit of finessing, since she was a bit of a beginner at this, but eventually she was able to line up all the pins and turn the barrell, opening the door as little as possible for her to slip through.

The heavy oaken wood did not creak, but the thunk as the door shut was much louder than she would’ve liked, and Bylia jumped at the noise, freezing for a moment as her ears strained for any sound of investigative footsteps.

Only when they did not come did she breathe again, and carefully sneak further into the room. Looking at the space in front of her, Bylia didn’t know where to start. It was the oddest space she’d ever been in. The humongous bed was pushed against no wall, instead an oddly shaped island in the middle of the room. Instead of being square, it was circular, like a pet’s bed except several times the size. The blankets had a strange pattern that matched the several tapestries on the wall. Green weaved with dark blue, and gold. 

In fact, there was gold everywhere. Every drawer handle, every bookcase and shelf, on the feet of every piece of furniture. The shiny metal lined the oval of a large vanity, intertwined like a snake til the top, where it dropped in a loop to hang a dark blue tear-drop shaped crystal over the highest part of the mirror. She stepped closer to get a better look at the things on the vanity - perhaps aside from cosmetics there were notes, or perhaps bottles of things that weren’t makeup. But, sliding open each drawer, she found no secret letters of questionable correspondence, and every capped bottle was some kind of oil. Not a potion among the lot of them. Nothing that could explain her father’s subservient attitude. 

It was certainly odd for Rhea to have so many different types of oils, though. What an odd hobby. From what she’d seen of the archbishop’s skin and hair, both shined well enough. They were perfect, actually, in that creepy way Rhea had of looking both beautiful and… wrong. 

There was something else in the drawers she didn’t recognize. At first, it looked like a hairbrush. It definitely resembled one, the gold handle adorned with swirls and a heart at the base - but instead of bristles at the other end, there were several long metal prongs, like a fork, but with teeth that lined either side of each prong. Caught between the teeth was a fine green dust. It reminded her vaguely of a tool she had seen her brother use to scrape the scales off a fish he caught for them to eat. In the bottom of the drawer, were a few oddly shaped shiny green rocks she could not guess the function of. For exfoliation, perhaps…?

Finding nothing more of interest at the vanity, Bylia moved on to the bookshelf - she doubted the bed was worth checking, as exposed in the middle of the room as it was, it would be a poor place to hide anything - and began scanning the tomes shelved there.

To Bylia’s irritation, though there were some in Fodlanese, the vast majority of them were written in the ancient symbols they studied in Hanneman’s class which she could not read. The books looked several decades old, and dust clung to their worn bindings.

After what must have been… fifteen, twenty minutes of reading every book title on the shelf she could read, and staring expectantly at those she could not - as if they would do her the courtesy of translating themselves - Bylia began to grow restless. Time was running out, and she wasn’t sure when she would get another opportunity like this. Or if it would be too late by then to get her dad out of whatever situation he was in. She had no heart with which to pound noisily with anxiety, but the blood in her veins run faster in the same way.

It was then she noticed that part of the shelf had a rectangular space devoid of dust. As if something had been moved frequently enough to prevent the air from settling on that space. Something large and rectangular like a book. Without hesitation she grasped the tome behind the dustless shape, yanking it out of the shelf. Rhea could be back any minute.

It had no title - but flipping through the pages, she was pleased to see it was in Fodlanese, and began to read. At first she was confused, these were just names… _ Ah, it’s a ...census! _ she realized, recognizing a popular noble last name. But what use did Rhea have for a census on such a regular basis? The date by these names were from several decades ago. What use would an archbishop have for these? And what were these symbols next to the names? They looked like… crests, almost, but none that Bylia had ever seen.

As if the world itself desired to answer her questions, upon the next hastily turned page, a folded piece of paper fluttered out onto the ground. Placing the book sideways on the shelf, she bent over to pick the paper up, unfolding it curiously.

More names - but this time, those she recognized as being of the current era - von Ordelia, von Hresvelg, Gautier… there were strange marks next to each name, the first were tally marks of some kind, and the second, she realized, was a small scrawled word. Either “success” or “failure.” There were far, far more failures than there were successes.

She leaned forward to get a closer look at the paper.

_ Bang _.

The door was flung open with such force that the sound it made as it hit the wall had Bylia cringing so hard she almost dropped the piece of paper. Scrambling to get it back in her hands, she shoved it in her pocket and whirled to face the door, immediately going invisible.

It was not Rhea, but her advisor, the right-hand-man Seteth who stood in the opening, his chest heaving as if he had ran here in a hurry. His sharp green eyes raked the room, passing over the bed… the vanity… Bylia glanced back at the bookshelf, praying he wouldn’t notice the one book out of place on it’s side. They didn’t, but the man took a threatening step forward into the room as he unsheathed his weapon and slid into a combat crouch. A smile drew up the corners of his thin mouth.

“You may slither in the dark, but though my eyes yet deceive me, the smell of your sinful magic gives you away.”

Bylia’s blood turned to ice. 

_ ...Smell _ her? What was this man?

Escape through the door or the balcony… she had no idea how far up they were, but in this fortress of a monastery it was sure to be a long enough way down to end her for good if there was nothing for her to hold onto to climb down.

She edged toward the door, keeping her chest facing the slowly advancing man. His head swiveled as he strained to find the foe he could not see.

“You dare enter Lady Rhea’s private chambers? The Goddess will have no mercy for you as you face punishment at the end of my blade.” He taunted.

Every agonizing inch felt like it took a year as Seteth searched the room for her, sniffing her out. Literally. The door was just a few feet away now. Glancing at the man’s prowling form near where she had been standing by the book case, Bylia took a deep breath and made a run for it.

“Oh no you don’t!” The man whirled at the noise of her mad dash for the door and raised his staff to point at the opening, aiming wildly.

The force of the magic lifted her off her feet and threw her all the way out the door to collide bodily with the wall in the hallway. Bylia wheezed in pain, dazedly scrambling to her feet as she made to keep running, the side of her torso where she’d collided with the wall throbbing painfully. 

“You cannot run from your divine punishment, vermin!” Seteth hissed from behind her, in hot pursuit. “This should slow you down!”

Bylia had no time to look behind her when the poorly aimed shot of ice magic shattered the stone where her feet had been but seconds ago.

The next shot, she was not so lucky. The magic missed her back, but caught her left hand, encasing the limb in ice and fusing it to the wall. Bylia could not hold back her gasp of startled pain - it was so cold, it burned, and she squirmed in panic as she struggled to wrench her arm free. 

“Now you will pay for the lives you stole from us.” Seteth closed in on her, staff raised, the blade at the end pointed towards her. Though she knew he could not see her, but only the empty shape of her arm around which the ice encased, she did not doubt his blade would pierce true. 

No matter how she pulled, the ice did not budge - and, not expecting to come to blows while invisible, she had left her daggers in her room - leaving her with no way to escape. 

“Lament your weakness!” He said, the finality of her doom in his dark green eyes. 

** _“Aaaaahh!”_ ** Bylia screamed as Seteth’s blade swung towards her, a high-pitched siren of air that the green-haired man was not expecting, surprise causing the staff to shift in his grip. The blow missed Bylia’s body and pierced the ice right under her arm, shattering to pieces with a loud clatter.

Bylia made no hesitation to take advantage of his distraction, and this time, her saving grace presented itself as she rounded the corner in the form of a door to the outside. She shoved it open so hard it slammed twice behind her, and she made for the darkness of the trees, knowing he could not hope to find her among the vegetation there even with the best of senses.

She wasn’t even sure if he was still behind her now, but she barreled through the brush for several minutes without slowing down, her heaving chest feeling like it would explode from how hard she wheezed for air. Once shrouded within the darkness, she let herself be visible again, unable to expend the energy to keep herself in that state and keep up her breakneck pace. A root caught her foot, and she tumbled for several feet, and yet she rolled with the movement and kept running as soon as her feet met again with the ground.

Bylia did not stop until she reached the clearing she recognized from her first journey here. Peeking out at the road, she leaned against a tree, the rough bark digging painfully against her tender side. She was alone, but for the sound of the night wind as it rustled the leaves in the trees above her and the labored sound of her own wild gulps of air.

Reluctantly pushing herself off the tree, Bylia dug in her pocket for the piece of paper, hoping she hadn’t lost it in her escape. Sweet relief flooded her as her fingers made contact with the folded document, and she pulled it out to look at it again, just for the satisfaction of having successfully snatched it from under Rhea’s nose. The names on the paper made no more sense to her under the light of the moon than they had in the orange glow of the chandelier in Rhea’s chambers, but Bylia had an idea of someone to whom they might.

It had come at the cost of what she was sure was several bruised ribs, and the angry red marks on her left arm where it had been encased in magical ice were no doubt the beginnings of some very painful ice burns, but if this paper was the key to freeing her dad, then it was all worth it.

Repocketing the precious list of names, Bylia made her way back inside the lion’s den.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AKA Bylia finds Rhea's experiment kids list. It does not all go according to keikaku. 
> 
> Can you guess who Bylia's gonna ask about these names? I'll reward you if you get it right. c:


	10. Checkmate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth always dreams, but never remembers them. Claude is a tabletop demon. Bylia is a liar. Jeralt will protect his kids until these old bones of his crumble to dust.

Byleth floated between swirling colors each one passing him by both chaotic and serene - nothing ever harmed him here. As the colors sharpened and came into focus, he eagerly leapt into the scene, the weightless cosmos vanishing beneath him replaced with the marvelous stone wrought city he loved. The tall spires, arcing bridges between air, the fountains surrounded by long shallow steps in large clearings with crystal water that sparkled in the light of the sun.

More than those creations, were the ones he loved the most. They swirled in graceful lazy loops in the clear blue sky, laughed, ate, and made the most interesting things. Green, his favorite color, was everywhere, the hair they wore long to look like him waving gently in the warm summer breeze. The young, cherubic faces sparkling with joy, wiggled their tiny pointed ears and gave him stars. They knew and loved him like he loved them.

Land rose with his touch, fields ripening at his song. Though this land was clunkier than his last, everything felt more real here, emotions so raw and real unlike before.

It made him weaker, but he regretted nothing.

His place of peace, his Zanado. He could never save them, no matter how many times he saw it.

He’d always gazed warily up at the sky, expecting resistance from the stars - it was how the land itself had taken him with surprise in it’s revolt.

He drove them out, chasing their darkness from every corner of his beautiful paradise, driving them under the very surface of the earth. They were gone, but it had cost him all his light, and his body fell into a long sleep, leaving only his conscience to guard over them.

Evil rose again from the dark with a vengeance, death in it’s eyes.

Fire and metal rained and rained on his beautiful city, charring the pristine stone a lifeless gray.

His children ran in vain, and his heart ached with a doomed bottomless love that battered his stone heart at their screams that he was powerless to stop, unable to wake from his slumber. This time they kept coming and coming, and inexorable march to his doom. The forbidden magics they’d mastered in the dark rising like a cloud of smoke.

_ No! Stop… don’t hurt them! _No matter how loud he yelled no sound escaped his mouth, and his beloved green was soaked in red. The canyon of gold he’d made to cradle them was painted red with their blood. 

And though he would do anything, anything to spare his beloved city, turning back the hands of time far enough to prevent this tragedy that rent his heart in two would mean condemning the children born then would be erased from existence - it was a murder, and he could never raise a hand in harm to any of his precious people. Could never be the cause of another, another, another life lost.

The most beautiful, most brave of his first children defended their brothers and sisters until the very bitter end. Among thousands, only five left. _ Five. _

The silence that ensued afterward was always worse than the screams, the punishment of the traitor, Fell Star finally complete. 

The scene was fading rapidly. He’d lost everything. He wanted to sleep forever.

But the slumber did not claim him this time - confusion washed through him, of the countless times he’d witnessed this, it always ended here. The edges of panic crept in. He didn’t want to suffer anymore, just sleep!

That was when he heard it - the sweetest, most pitiful cry. Crawling from the arms of a dead parent, one of his precious children, only a few moons old. Days abandoned after the destruction, looters pawed through the rubble. The softest heart among them had discovered the child, lifting them into their arms. For them, of all the precious things that lay in ruin, they’d obtained a truly invaluable treasure. He prayed with all his broken heart that would always be true.

The moon and star amulet on the infant’s forehead chinked with each step as the group retreated, and Byleth was lost in the deep deep green of the child’s eyes.

\---

Byleth groaned as sunlight shone brightly against his lids, screwing them shut tight and rolling over. As he came unwillingly into consciousness, a dull pain throbbed at the back of his head. He drifted, head against his pillow for several minutes until the headache was too painful, and woke him.

Clinging to his sheets for just a moment longer in defiance, Byleth sighed, before sitting up. As he stretched, arms above his head pulling his stiff muscles taught, he yawned. He felt like he’d had a dream about something important, but like always, he couldn’t remember it. It danced on the fringe of his mind, just out of reach, slipping further the more he tried to recall.

Abandoning the effort, he kicked off the covers and rose to get ready. He could tell from the position of the sun outside his window that class would be starting soon, and hurried to get dressed and wash his face. 

He belatedly realized he was famished. Better make a quick stop by the kitchens then. Nobody would care if he was a few minutes late. _ He _ started class, not the bell, anyways.

Stuffing his face with breakfast pastries he’d snagged - well, not after quickly downing some scrambled eggs first, they’d smelled so good he couldn’t resist!! - he hurried across the walkway. He _ was _ going to be late now, but Byleth would get there when he got there.

It was purely coincidence that he happened to flip his bangs out of his face at that moment, the briefest look upward, and did a double take - somebody was watching him from the small balcony of one of the minarets. Ah, Lady Rhea again. Those robes were unmistakable.

She was watching him with a fond, but sad smile on her face. 

It didn’t make much sense to him. He had no idea why she was so weird around him in the first place, so he really had no idea why she would be so interest in watching him juggle eating and power-walking on a morning like this.

Byleth inwardly shrugged. Crazy archbishop lady. 

When he arrived at the Golden Deer classroom, pastries long gone now, he squared his shoulders and strode in shamelessly.

In their impatience at his absence, it seemed they had taken to playing board games. Claude glanced up from his chess match with Lorenz, a teasing smile already forming on his face.

“Hey Teach, you decided to show up after all! And here we were thinking we’d get the day off - if you’re not here within fifteen minutes, we can leave, y’know.”

Byleth squelched a grin and shrugged. The headache throbbed dully in the back of his head. “Had some important stuff to do. Besides, there’s nothing we really need to go over in House Meeting today.”

Ignatz and Raphael were in the middle of a game as well, and to his amusement, so were Leonie and Bylia. Hilda was teaching Marianne some other kind of game that he didn’t know, but it was some kind of hand game he assumed, from how she held up Marianne’s hands in hers and had the other girl mimic her movements. Too serious for fun, as usual, Lysithea was studying, a large and heavy looking book in her hands.

He walked over to take a look at Claude and Lorenz’s game. It wasn’t always clear to see who was in the lead for a game like chess, but Byleth had always had a tactical mind that analyzed situations with ease, so it was pretty clear to him that Lorenz was about to get thrashed, despite appearing to be ahead.

He couldn’t be certain, but he was pretty sure Claude was about to sacrifice his queen to open up a checkmate. 

Leaning over, he snagged the roll sheet from his desk and pulled up a chair to watch while he took roll.

Byleth had to hand it to Claude - he had a really good poker face. Lorenz was fully convinced he was going to win now, having taken Claude’s queen, fingers templed gracefully as he anticipated his victory.

“Checkmate.” Claude said, only now allowing a sly little smirk to grace his lips.

“I beg your pardon? That is preposterous, how could you possibly have a…” Lorenz trailed off, his face going stiff as he noticed the trap he had walked into, dismay growing as he realized there was no piece he could move to save his king. “You… you _ tricked _me into taking your queen so that I would not notice your rook would then be in position to take my king!”

“Just a little bit of a bait and switch, nothin’ fancy.” Claude moved his piece and with the tiniest knock, removed Lorenz’s king and replaced it with his rook. “You just couldn’t resist the chance to take my queen, could ya? You should be careful, that might get you into trouble later.”

Lorenz did not react well to such an accusation, even though clearly made in jest. “Sacrificing such an important piece as the the Queen simply for the chance to distract your enemy. Such unrefined tactics. Again, I truly doubt you are the legitimate heir to House Riegan as you claim to be.”

Claude just laughed and leaned back, putting him arms behind his head. “No need for all that, now. As long as you get the win, doesn’t matter how you do it. The idea of glory in a battle does nothing but hold you back.”

Lorenz scowled and stood with a huff. “It is the duty of every noble to uphold virtues such as glory and honor in battle. Clearly, one cannot expect someone such as you to understand.”

He stalked off to go sit near Leonie and Bylia under the pretense of watching their game.

Byleth took the opportunity to fill the vacant chair across from Claude. 

“My turn.” He announced.

“Teach himself wants a chance to have a go at little old me? Aw, I’m honored.” Claude rearranged the pieces back into their original place on the board. “Go easy on me, alright?”

Byleth rolled his eyes. “If anyone should be going easy, it should be you. I don’t even want to think about how many schemes you’ve got cooking up in that head of yours. I’ll take black.”

“I’m not convinced for a second that you’re afraid of my schemes Teach, especially considering you’re willing to give _ me _ the first move.” Claude said, moving forward one of his white pawns.

“First move isn’t always an advantage.” Byleth quipped back, and made his play.

“That’s up for debate.” Claude refuted, confidently moving forward another piece. “But I accept your challenge.”

The house leader’s eyes twinkled with more than just mischief, and Byleth got the impression that Claude enjoyed games like these much more than he let on.

Some ten minutes later, the two were already in endgame, both taking almost a minute before making their move. Claude was so focused on the game that his joking quips lagged a bit, as if he was just belatedly remembering they were playing just for fun. 

Byleth was pretty proud of himself for how he’d done so far, but Claude had already managed to check him several times. He would probably lose this game, but it was so fun playing against someone of this level, he didn’t mind. His headache was gone now too, making it much easier to focus. He could hear Leonie and his sister arguing occasionally, which he found amusing. That girl never failed to get a rise out of Bylia, no matter what they were doing, it seemed.

“Check.” 

“Isn’t that check mate?” Byleth thoughtfully surveyed the board. He could see no move that would save him.

“Nah. You could move your knight there and block me, but that would open up another path straight to your king that I could… ah, actually yeah… checkmate, Teach!”

Byleth laughed and joking applauded. “Well done, Claude, you got me.”

“That was a good game.” Claude enthused, leaning over the board. “I don’t often get the chance to pull out all the stops.”

“What happened to going easy on me? I’m just a simple mercenary you know.”

“Uh huh, suuure, a simply mercenary with some serious skills that just so happened to walk unexpectedly into a sweet teaching gig at the prestigious Officers Academy…” There was no accusation in Claude’s tone, only levity, as he began to pick up the pieces and put them away.

Byleth chose to ignore it regardless, and picked up a bishop piece, the detail on it catching his eye. On the rounded bottom of the piece, a symbol resembling a crescent moon and a star caught his eye. 

“This your chess set, Claude?” He asked, tracing a thumb over the pattern. Where had he seen this before? 

“Oh yeah. Bought it off a merchant shortly after I came to Fodlan.” Claude answered casually, slotting the pieces into place in a wooden box. “It was cheaper than the usual Church of Seiros themed sets.”

“Now that you mention it, yeah, this looks simple but like it’s part of a different set. Which one is it?” 

Claude shrugged, folding the wooden board in two and placing it inside the box. “Couldn’t tell ya. What, you about to pull a Lorenz on me and bash my unrefined choice in ‘commoner’ chess products?”

“Oh, nah.” Byleth handed him the piece and Claude closed the set and shoved it inside his desk. “I don’t care about that stuff.”

“And _ that _ is precisely why I like you, Teach. Speaking of Lorenz, I think I’ll go join him in observing the girls’ match. They’re going a bit slow for my liking but if it’s got Lorenz so riveted, it’s clearly worth being there. Thanks for the game, Teach.”

As the young man left to go observe the other match, Byleth was left to ruminate over the chess piece. Though it not being part of the classic Church of Seiros sets made sense, though worn, the craftsmanship had been too good to be a simple commoner set. He’d played with those a couple of times before. His friend in their mercenary company, Arwin, had always loved the game, as well as tea, miniature food, and all manner of other things that had made the teen feel like less of a poor sellsword than he was. Whenever they weren’t busy, which wasn’t often, he would sometimes played a game against Byleth with a roughly made chess set whose pieces were made out of painted stone instead of finely carved wood. There had been occasional sharp divots in the stone where the pieces had chipped after being dropped. 

Though worn, Claude’s set hadn’t felt like that. It had been smooth to the touch, and rather intricately detailed compared to a lackluster stone set, carved only enough to differentiate the roles of the pieces.

The moon and star symbol danced in his mind. He wasn’t sure where he recognized it from. There was plenty of star imagery in the Church of Seiros that he had witnessed here at the academy… but never accompanied by a moon like that. Besides, it wasn’t a church set. 

...And yet, it resembled it, somehow.

“Th-that’s a beautiful song, Professor.” Byleth looked up from where he had been gazing unseeingly at his hands. It seemed Marianne and Hilda had finished playing their hand game, the sleepy-eyed young woman sitting nearby, resting her head in her hands. “What song is it? I don’t think I’ve h-heard it before. Is it a lullaby? It makes me feel so calm and sleepy.”

“Oh uhh… I didn’t even realize I was humming, sorry. It’s nothing in particular actually, just a tune I have stuck in my head from... somewhere.” Byleth’s cheeks colored a little in irritation - he hated when stuff like this happened. Occasionally he would just do things like that and not even realize it.

“I see. I’m so sorry to bother you!” The young woman looked panicked, worried at having upset him.

Byleth grinned sheepishly and waved it off. “Don’t worry about it, I was just thinking about people calling me an airhead and other stuff like that for zoning out and humming like that when I was growing up.”

In truth, it was more like ‘freak’ and ‘weirdo’ than ‘airhead,’ but that got the general gist across without unduly upsetting Marianne.

“Oh no… I didn’t mean to make you recall bad memories.”

“Nah, it’s okay, really.” He insisted. “Anyways, what was that game you were playing earlier with Hilda?”

The young woman’s cheeks colored pink. “Oh, um, it’s a game called ‘Lantern, Lantern.’ It’s really popular around where Hilda lives. It goes like this…”

\---

Claude was having a rather good time watching Leonie and Bylia’s chess match, for a number of reasons. One, he was pretty sure Bylia had been avoiding him ever since what happened in the sauna, so it was nice to be in a situation where he could sit nearby and not have her immediately stand up and leave. Two, Lorenz’s attempts at driving the carriage from the backseat kept irritating Leonie, having her insist he shut up - she knew what she was doing and didn’t need help from the likes of him! - and then subsequently hemming and hawing over her next move before bitterly doing exactly what he had suggested. Hilda had joined the spectating group now too, and was now offering up a tale of the first time she had beaten her older brother, the renowned general Holst, in chess, only to find out that he let her win on purpose.

She’d been ecstatic in her victory at the time, but when she found out he went easy on her on purpose, she became very angry and began using it as leverage. _ “I’ll only let you play chess with me again if you do my share of the chores today!” _ And the like. Typical Hilda.

Third, after several minutes, he was pretty sure that Bylia was toying with Leonie, playing casually until the other girl got close to threatening, and only then playing with her real strength. Once back in a favorable position, she would switch back. It was an incredibly petty game of cat and mouse, but unfortunately for Bylia, Leonie didn’t seem to notice she was doing it.

Neither did anybody else, for that matter. 

Claude really wanted to play her himself now, but past events considered, he doubted he would be given the chance. He’d have to find some other way to get her to play with him. But how? Perhaps he could…

While he started to come up with ways he could get her to do so, the two began to have a little dispute over one of the rules.

“Ah, actually, you can’t do that.”

“I can, it’s a bishop piece. I can move it as far as I want so long as it’s diagonal.”

“No, you can move it diagonally until there’s another piece in the way.”

“But it’s my own piece, it doesn’t count.”

“You really can’t…” Bylia sighed. “Look, I don’t make the rules. Just put the piece back so we can keep going.”

“What? No, that doesn’t make any sense. Hey! Don’t just move my-”

“_ Aaargh! _” Bylia cried out and snatched her arm out of Leonie’s grip, immediately dropping the piece, which clattered loudly on the board and knocked over several other pieces, her face pale as a sheet.

“Huh? What the… I only touched you, yeesh, way to overreact.” The hunter girl crossed her arms defensively.

“Match is over, you won.” Bylia suddenly pushed up from her seat, and Claude instinctively scooted backward in his chair to give her space as she stalked by, ignoring Teach’s inquisitive glance as she passed his desk and left the room, slamming the door shut after her.

There were several moments of silence.

“...She was actually correct, you know.” It was Lorenz who spoke up. The desire to correct Leonie on the facts had clearly been on the tip of his tongue this whole time. “The bishop piece may indeed move as far diagonally in one turn as it so desires, but should a piece block it’s way, it can go no further.”

Leonie just huffed. “Well that’s stupid. The board is so small already, so what’s the point. It’s useless. This game is just another way for people with too much money to waste time.”

“Hear, hear.” Lysithea spoke up from behind her book, letting it fall on the desk with a punctuating thud.

“Sounds to me like someone’s a poor loser. And someone else is too young to understand the subtle nuances of a tactical game like chess.” Claude quipped with a grin, looking at Lysithea. Here it comes, one of his favorite kinds of entertainment!

“Heyy I’m not a poor lose-”

“What?!” Lysithea slammed down the tome full force this time, an enraged look on her face. “There you go again, treating me like a child. I have the best grades in this entire class, including you, Claude!”

“Maybe you do, for now… but can you do a backflip while simultaneously attacking your opponent?”

“I’m a mage, why would I need to do a backflip! Arrgh, you’re infuriating!”

“If you can’t walk the walk, you can’t talk the talk, my dear Lysithea.”

“I know I’m not hearing bullying in _ my _ classroom, Claude.” Byleth glanced up from his papers, blue eyes twinkling despite his words.

“_ Thank _ you, Professor.”

“Who me? I’m just imparting some life wisdom on this young lady here.”

“This _ young _ lady is perfectly capable of figuring all that out for _ herself _.”

“Alright, alright.” Claude raised his hands placatively. “Yeesh, kids these days.”

Lysithea went back to her studying, just twice as aggressively as before, and Claude leaned back in his seat, raising his arms behind him to lean his head against his interlocked hands. Didn’t seem Bylia was coming back, he thought with a glance at the door.

Now that he thought about it, it was a little odd that she’d been wearing long sleeves today. She didn’t seem to be a big fan of sleeves in general - and neither did her brother for that matter. Must’ve had a bruise or something, that would explain why she yelped like that. 

Although… must have been a hell of a bruise, he mused, remembering how the blood had drained from her face in pain. If it was that serious, why didn’t she get it healed? Maybe that’s where she was now.

Ah, this was a good opportunity! He should go check up on her and get some brownie points. Maybe talk up her chess skills a bit.

“Hey Teach, I’mma go use the restroom.”

Byleth grimaced from where he sat doing paperwork. “I _ know _ I’ve told all of you that you don’t need to ask or tell me first. Hanneman and Manuela might require it, but I’d really rather not know. And it makes me feel old and stuffy.”

“I know.” Claude grinned and winked at Byleth as he walked by, closing the door much softly behind him than the previous person to exit the room. 

Slowing his gait to a casual stroll, Claude headed to the infirmary.

But when he arrived, Bylia wasn’t there. Neither was Manuela, or any of the other nurses.

Just Linhardt, sleeping shamelessly on one of the beds, no doubt skipping class. Claude stifled an amused laugh, and stepped back out of the infirmary.

He should go back now, he supposed. He was a little disappointed to have missed out on the opportunity to score some points with the icier of the twins, but he’d get other chances.

Claude was thinking about what he knew about the locations of relic weapons, almost entirely in his own head at that point when he happened upon what was clearly fate giving him a little push. Glancing absently to his left before he was about to turn onto the path that led to the classrooms, he did a double take - under the shade of a tree stood Jeralt and Bylia.

Something about the way they stood, close together and body language leaning forward and slightly hunched indicated to him that they were discussing something they didn’t wish for others to overhear.

So naturally, unable to resist his curiosity, he pressed himself to the shadows, slowly but casually advancing as far as he could while remaining out of their sight.

“-Don’t really get what you’re trying to tell me, kid.” Jeralt was saying. “Clearly somebody ignored important safety rules during sparring. At the very least, they owe you an apology.”

“How it happened doesn’t matter, Dad - it’s embarrassing enough for something like that to happen during training anyways, I’d rather not talk about it. Can’t you just tell me how to bandage it?”

The large man seemed to be unhappy with this, but sighed and reached out a hand. “Alright, let me take a look.”

Bylia glanced around, and Claude shrank against the wall for several moments until he heard her speak again.

“Okay. It’s not as bad as it looks, by the way.”

Claude’s own shock mirrored Jeralt’s as Bylia gingerly drew up her sleeve, revealing an incredibly nasty looking… burn? The skin was an angry red, and the skin had blistered in a few places, crusted dry blood clinging to her arm.

“Bylia…”

_ That _ was no training incident.

He was pretty sure her father had reached the same conclusion from the way his deep-set eyes glinted with the fierce look of a protective parent. But he did not press Bylia for the details she clearly did not want to give, instead gently rotating her arm to inspect the entirety of the wound. 

“You’ll need to clean those blisters and apply some ointment. You won’t be able to use normal bandages for this, you’ll need ones that don’t stick to your skin, or it’ll reopen the wound every time you change bandages.”

“It shouldn’t scar if you’re gentle and apply some ointment every day. You sure you don’t wanna just get this healed, kid?” Jeralt’s eyes searched Bylia’s face.

“Yeah, I’m sure. “ Bylia quickly slid the sleeve back over her arm as soon as her father was done with his examination. 

“Alright.” Jeralt exhaled heavily. “I know I seem… busy, with my duties with the Knights, but I’m always here for you if you need me, okay kid?”

Bylia’s voice sounded warmer than he’d ever heard it before. “I know, Dad.”

“Good. Run along now, I’m not so old this father doesn’t know what skipping class looks like.”

Bylia laughed. “I don’t know Dad, you’re so old _ you _ don’t even remember how old you are.”

Jeralt crossed his arms and fixed her with a look.

“_ Okay, _ I’m going!”

From Claude’s hiding spot, he could see the fond smile crumple into hard, concerned eyes that followed Bylia’s back as she walked away.

He waited until both had left before he peeled away from the wall and made his way back to class. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! Blame colleg for the week without a chapter - to placate (hopefully), have this long chapter.  
Couple things to note... I've never played chess so I had to ask my bf and google a lot of stuff... chess police pls don't come after me!! :x  
Also I did a lot of research aka reading the church history and book of seiros and stuff in the library to try and get my facs and chronology right canonically so pls also don't come after me LOL!! :pray:
> 
> Byleth was humming the song of the Nabateans by the way. For those curious.
> 
> Claude is,, a teasing big brother type to Lysithea and I live for it. Girl was forced to grow up too fast and while she may not appreciate it, she deserves some childhood. *a single tear rolls down my face* I just wanna brush her hair and give her cookies... I ain't know what I was doin at that age but I'm pretty sure I was drawing really bad cringey anime ocs and writing mary sue self-insert star wars fanfiction.
> 
> Claude could nail lead in an espionage movie at this point. We all been knew.


End file.
